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Born of Water and Spirit: 


A 

SERIES OF ESSAYS 


CONCERNING 


REGENERATION AND THE NEW LIFE. 


BY 

SAMUEL HOUGH. 


PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR. 


(1 o.Jo£lk-l 


NEW YORK: 

SHELDON & 

8 Murray Street 
1879. 


V 1879. .q 
^ of ^ 

CO 




S63 


Copyright by Sam uel Hough, 1879. 


STEREOTYPED BY 
THE 

NEWBURGH STEREOTYPE CO. 


CONTENTS 


i. 

PAGE 

Introductory. 5 

II. 

Regeneration Necessary. 19 

III. 

Ritual Regeneration. 40 

IV. 

Regeneration not a Miracle. 58 

V. 

Is Regeneration Instantaneous?. 76 

VI. 

Repentance. 106 

VII. 

The New Life.125 

VIII. 

Conversion. 160 











IV 


CONTENTS. 


IX. 


PAGE 

Born of Water and Spirit. 194 

X. 

Christians of Bible Times.227 

XI. 

Second Conversion.247 


XII. 


Dffices and Work of the Holy Spirit, 


290 






BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT, 


I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

“ ' Get thy spindle and thy distaff ready and God shall 
send thee flax.’ ” Old Proverb. 

“ I have got my spindle and my distaff ready, my pen 
and mind, never doubting for one instant, that God will send 
me flax.” Gold Foil. 

Now, if the reader will pardon my speaking to 
him a little more confidentially than may beseem a 
stranger, I will say that I see,—or seem to see—an 
abundance of flax around me waiting to be spun, 
am strongly inclined to spin a little if I can, have 
got my spindle and distaff ready, and yet hesitate 
to begin. Can I spin well enough to make it worth 
the while ? There is so much spinning done now- 
a-days that comes to naught! One thought en¬ 
courages me. I have read that in the olden time 
the Lord stirred up the hearts and stimulated the 
ability of some poor people,—they were briekmakers 
and their wives who had just escaped out of slavery 
—so that they spun goats’ hair and blue and purple 



6 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


and scarlet and fine linen fittingly for those beau¬ 
tiful curtains of the tabernacle ; and I think that 
if he stirs my heart—I believe he has done it— 
and helps my mind, I, too, can spin. Who knows 
but that, if he helps me, I may spin some threads 
that will yet help to form those white robes which 
shall be worn by some of my readers when, by and 
by, they are admitted to the presence-chamber of 
the King of Kings, in the heavenly glory ? Is the 
thought presumptuous ? It may seem so, and yet, 
the white robes are the righteousness of the saints, 
—who knows but that it may be even so ? 

The flax that I would fain spin, or, dropping the 
metaphor, the thoughts which I would arrange for 
you, relate to the New Birth, the Regeneration of a 
human soul. 

Now it may be that to you this subject may 
seem so trite, so worn, that any thoughts in re¬ 
gard to it must needs be uninteresting. To this, I 
can only say, that to me the subject does not ap¬ 
pear by any means worn out. I am deeply inter¬ 
ested in it, and will hope that you may be, if you go 
with me a little way in its investigation. 

That it is an important subject, few will deny. 
Considered as a doctrine, it is a central one in the 
gospel system. Take it away, and you have re¬ 
moved all that is distinctive in the gospel. 

If we consider it as a subject, we can but remem¬ 
ber that it is one which angels desire to look into ; 
and surely it must be one of the deepest interest, 


INTRODUCTORY. 


7 


and of ever new interest to us whose home in heaven 
and happiness for eternity depend upon its being to 
us a matter of personal experience. 

Thinking of it as a work of God, we shall see 
that God has given to it exceeding care and pains. 
Is it too much to say that what God has seen it ne¬ 
cessary to do, in order to effect the salvation of a 
single soul, has cost him more than the creation of 
the earth and all its inhabitants ? Creation did not 
cost the life of suffering, and death of agony, of 
God’s only and well-beloved Son. 

If we do not see the importance of this subject, 
it must be because our perceptive faculties are im¬ 
perfect ; because the spiritual eyes we see with are 
“eyes that see not.” Probably, to the cow, the 
most beautiful and sweetest floweret of the field or 
wild-wood has no beauty and no meaning unless it 
offers her food ; but to an intelligent Christian, one 
whose eyes and ears have been opened, the little 
blossom is seen to be a message from the All-Fa¬ 
ther,—a love gift from our Elder Brother ; it tells 
a story of infinite love prompting infinite skill. 
Now, seen with the best of our human eyes, it may 
be that there are many things which God has made, 
which hardly seem any honor to the Maker:—by 
and by, when we come to use such eyes as are, no 
doubt, prepared for those who shall dwell in the 
“ many mansions,” and can comprehend more fully 
than now, the plans and ideas of the Creator, these 
very things, it can hardly be doubted, will appear to 


8 BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 

us beautiful and glorious. The most unsightly rep¬ 
tile will then, probably, be to us a thing of beauty, 
and the animalcule, to which a drop of water is an 
ocean and an hour an age, be exalted and glorified as 
a necessary part of God’s perfect work in creation. 

It is not permitted to us, at present, to look for¬ 
ward into the eternal world and see things very 
clearly. Yet we may believe, with much assurance, 
that the everlasting life promised to God’s children 
will be a real life, full of precious privileges and en¬ 
joyments. You and I do not believe that we are to 
spend eternity wholly, or chiefly, in choir practice. 
We may reasonably expect that one of our joys—a 
joy that cannot but be ever fresh and new—will be 
the study of God and his works. Then the clouds 
and the darkness that are about us, the fogs and 
smoke of earth that so hinder our vision, and the 
infirmities of the flesh that render it weak, will all 
be gone, and, we may hope, the secrets of the uni¬ 
verse be laid open before us, the Creator himself 
being our loving teacher and guide. 

When that time comes, and we pass from death 
into life—glorious, perfect, eternal life, can we be¬ 
lieve that we shall gaze longer or more wonderingly 
upon any of the other works of God than upon the 
regeneration of a soul ? Will worlds or systems of 
worlds, interest us more, think you, than what Jesus 
has done and is doing to save poor sinful men 
and women ? 

If now, we begin to do, here and at once, what 


INTRODUCTORY. 


9 


we expect to do in the hereafter, and study Regene¬ 
ration as a work of God, our first inquiry will nat¬ 
urally be :—What are God’s objects in undertaking 
this work ? What results does he expect from it ? 
Is it merely to save men ? Beyond question, that 
is one principal object. He purposes to gather from 
amongst the children of men a great multitude, 
that no man can number, and bring them to dwell 
with him forever in heaven. And each one of that 
multitude must be specially fitted for heaven. The 
most careless sinner knows, in his heart, that he is 
totally unfit for that home of the holy ; that he 
could not be admitted there ; and, if he could, that 
he would not be happy there. He must be so 
cleansed and changed in heart as to become morally 
harmonious with the inhabitants of heaven, and be 
so fitted to the place as to be, as it were to it, 
“ native and to the manor born.” Nor can this 
change originate with the sinner himself. An Ethio¬ 
pian may change his skin, and a leopard his spots, 
as soon as one born in sin and shapen in iniquity, 
may make himself fit for heaven. God alone can 
do this; he can, and he has undertaken to do it by 
“ the washing of regeneration and the renewing of 
the Holy Ghost.” 

But, God has evidently another object in view 
besides the salvation of individuals of the human 
race. By bringing individuals, one at a time, into 
submission to his will and harmony with his pur¬ 
poses, he seems to expect to bring the world, at 
1 * 


10 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT . 


last, under his moral government. God does not 
intend that this world shall always occupy the posi¬ 
tion of a revolted, rebellious world, where sin and 
wrong bear rule. The kingdom of Immanuel is 
set up, and is, certainly, however slow its progress 
may appear to be, to overturn and break in pieces 
all the kingdoms of this world,—all systems of 
organized and legalized sin and wrong,—is to be 
established over all the earth, and to stand forever. 
Now, this kingdom is extended and gains power 
just in proportion as men become God’s children by 
spiritual generation. 

If we look backward over the history of the 
world, it may seem to us that, 

“ Evil has won in the horrid feud 
Of ages with the throne,”—that 
“ Evil stands on the neck of good, 

And rules the world alone.” 

A second look may lead us to think that God has 
been trying experiments in managing and sub¬ 
duing his revolted subjects ; and that these experi¬ 
ments have not been successful. 

Do not he startled—this is spoken reverently :— 
experiments do not always argue ignorance or weak¬ 
ness on the part of the experimenter—they may be 
used for the purpose of teaching the ignorant, and 
demonstrating truth. Besides, it is safe to follow 
the Bible in its exhibition of God and his works ; 
and that often speaks of God as though he tried 
experiments,—yes, and failed in them, too. For 


INTRODUCTORY. 


11 


example: God said to Israel by Isaiah, “What 
could have been done more to my vineyard that I 
have not done in it ? wherefore, when I looked that 
it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild 
grapes.” 

Studying, then, God’s management of the world 
in past ages, we may think of the period between 
the Fall of man and the Deluge, as a time in which 
men were left almost wholly to themselves. So far 
as we can know, there was but little of divine inter¬ 
ference in their affairs. They possessed a knowl¬ 
edge of good and evil, of right and wrong; and were 
left with but little more than this, to work out their 
own destiny, both for this world and the world to 
come. 

This, if we could accept the views of many 
philosophers,—so called,—of modern times, ought 
to have been “the golden age” of the world. 
There was no priestcraft then ;—there were no 
cramping, fettering religious creeds ; there was no 
“ Bibliolatry ; ”—indeed, we may imagine that there 
was nothiug to prevent any man, or all men, from 
being just as good, and pure, and noble, as he, or 
they, might please to be. And yet, somehow, men 
were not good in those days :—that was not a time 
of Arcadian simplicity and innocence :—that was 
not “'the golden age.” Instead of this, “ the earth 
became filled with violence,—for all flesh had cor¬ 
rupted his way upon the earth. And God saw that 
the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and 


12 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart 
was only evil continually.” 

Plainly the experiment of leaving the world with 
no religion but that of nature was a failure, a signal, 
utter failure. The deluge expressed God’s thought 
of the result of it. 

Doubtless, things would have gone better, and 
the result been entirely different, but for one fatal 
difficulty ; a difficulty which the philosophers men¬ 
tioned seem always to overlook,—but one which 
must not be overlooked if we would understand the 
true philosophy and the history of human life ; viz., 
man is a fallen being; he has lapsed from his original 
state ; instead of being upright, he now leans heavily 
toward sin and wrong, showing that the innate ten¬ 
dencies of his nature are depraved. 

The next great period and experiment began at 
the deluge, and is sometimes called The Patriarchal 
Dispensation. In this period each father of a family 
appears to have been regarded as, not only the head 
and ruler of the family, but also as its priest. This 
was, doubtless, by divine appointment. The father 
was, in a degree, a mediator between God and his 
descendants and dependents. By him sacrifices 
were offered, and instruction in religion given. In 
many instances, these Fathers, or Patriarchs, were 
good, holy men, and were admitted to friendly and 
even intimate relations with God, receiving direct 
revelations from him. We must believe that the 
influence of religion, in this form, was deeply and 


INTR OB UCTOR Y. 


13 


widely felt. There was an antiseptic, a preservative, 
power in it that must have checked the progress of 
moral decay and corruption. 

Still the tendencies of human nature were the 
same that they had been, and if we look upon the 
human race as a whole, we shall see that instead of 
progression in holiness and a moral elevation of the 
man, there was retrogression from God and right¬ 
eousness, and a rapid moral degradation. It is 
nearly certain that the sons of Noah were not all 
dead before the heads of families, themselves, had 
mostly forsaken the worship and service of God and 
had become idolaters. Melchizedec and Abraham 
appear to have stood alone in their uprightness. 
And when, a few centuries later, the time comes for 
a change in God’s plan of working, we look in vain 
for a sign that there was on the broad earth a pure 
altar or a holy priest unto Jehovah. The knowledge 
of God was not quite lost, and faith in God was not 
quite dead, among the Hebrew slaves of the Egyp¬ 
tians, and this is all that can be said. 

The Patriarchal plan was not a success. 

Next followed what is called the Mosaic dispen¬ 
sation. 

The prominent feature of God’s plan, in this 
period, was the selection of the Children of Israel 
to be, as a nation, the repository of his revealed law, 
and a perpetual light amid the surrounding moral 
darkness. In carrying out this plan, he separated 
the Israelites from other nations by the rite of cir- 


14 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


cumcision ; he gave them the Law written on tablets 
of stone with his own finger, sanctioning it by all 
the terrible manifestations of Sinai and the desert; 
and then, trained them in obedience for forty years 
before he brought them into Canaan. Then, he 
made their worship of him impressive by all the 
stately ceremonies of the Tabernacle and Temple. 
He sent to them prophets and teachers of the most 
exalted character, and gave through them most 
abundant revelations of his will, and these he con¬ 
firmed by miracles. To some of these teachers he 
spoke face to face as one talks with a friend. He 
gave the people a good land and showered abundant 
blessings upon them. Surely he had a right to ex¬ 
pect success, at least with the Israelites. He had a 
right to expect them to be faithful to him, and that 
they would become a permanent and ever-increasing 
light amid the world’s gloom. But did they do it ? 

There is no sadder thing, in the world’s his¬ 
tory, than the record of Israel’s backslidings and 
wanderings from God. So far were the people from 
being faithful to their privileges and duties, that 
their whole history is filled with their rebellion and 
idolatries. They exhibited in a remarkable degree 
the bad tendencies of human nature. They con¬ 
tinually broke over the restraints of God’s righteous 
law, and emulated with zeal all the wickedness of 
the heathen around them. They went on from bad 
to worse, until their land became like a charnel- 
house, full of festering corruption, and Jerusalem, 


INTR OD UCTOR Y. 


15 


their sacred city, a very plague spot, that could be 
cleansed only by fire. Finally, the crucifixion of 
Jesus was, at once, the culmination of their guilt, 
and the end of the Dispensation. 

Well might the Lord say: “What could have 
been done more to my vineyard that I have not done 
in it F wherefore when I looked that it should bring 
forth grapes brought it forth wild grapes.” The 
experiment was a failure, and the vineyard was 
digged up. 

But let me not he misunderstood. In speaking 
of the Patriarchal and Mosaic Dispensations as fail¬ 
ures, I do not mean that they did not accomplish 
good, nor even that they did not do what God ex¬ 
pected of them; hut merely that, considered as 
expedients for bringing the world under God’s rule, 
and making mankind submissive to his will, they 
were failures, utter failures. In another way they 
were a success. Good men, eminently holy men 
were trained under them, and fitted not only for 
God’s service, but for heaven. The antediluvian 
world had its Enoch and its Noah :—the Patriarchal 
Age, its Melchizedec and its Abraham ;—the Law, its 
Moses and Elijah ;—and in one of the darkest pe¬ 
riods of Israel’s backsliding, there were yet found 
seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to the 
image of Baal. 

And yet, must we not believe that, in some sense, 
the truly good people of all those ages were saved 
by the gospel ? Jesus said that Abraham saw his 


16 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


day and was glad thereof. Every altar that was 
built, and every sacrifice that bled, was an index 
finger pointing to Christ. The tabernacle and the 
temple with all the ritualistic service connected with 
them, foreshadowed the gospel. And beyond ques¬ 
tion the Holy Spirit has visited the earth in all the 
ages, and in many hearts has been welcomed as an 
abiding guest. In such hearts he has wrought the 
blessed change we call regeneration. Is it too much 
to claim that all who have ever been saved have been 
saved by the gospel ? 

Well, be that as it may, this much is claimed for 
the gospel; that its plan of working is entirely dif¬ 
ferent from that of the dispensations preceding it;— 
that regeneration is the central feature in its plan ;— 
and that it is a success, and is to be increasingly a 
success, until the earth shall be full of the knowledge 
of the Lord, and the kingdoms of the world become 
the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. 

Jeremiah gives us the key note of the gospel, 
when he says :•— 4 'Behold, the days come, saith the 
Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the 
house of Israel, and with the house of Judah : not 
according to the covenant that I made with their 
fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to 
bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my cov¬ 
enant they brake, although I was as a husband unto 
them, saith the Lord ; but this shall be the covenant 
that I will make with the house of Israel; after 
those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in 


INTRODUCTORY. 


17 


their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; 
and I will be their God and they shall be my 
people.” 

Ah, this writing God’s law upon the heart,—this 
going right into the very citadel and sanctuary of 
the life ; this making one love the law, as the initia¬ 
tive step, and thus securing obedience as the outflow 
of the interior life,—this is the peculiarity of the 
gospel,—and this is Kegeneration. 

Surely, now, there is no need of urging the im¬ 
portance of the subject before us. Is there need 
that I should apologize for the proposed discussion 
of it ? If so, I can only say again, that to me the 
subject is fresh and interesting, that I am enjoying 
the study of it, that I believe much may be truth¬ 
fully said upon it that will be new to many Chris¬ 
tian people—saying nothing of the impenitent,— 
and that I believe there are many ideas afloat in 
the religious world, in regard to it, which are not 
well digested, and some that are fatally untrue. 
Nor do I forget that my thoughts may seem to an¬ 
other crude and erroneous. 

I can only beg the kind and candid attention of 
the reader, and his earnest prayer that our divine 
guide, the Holy Spirit, may lead him, and me, and 
all, into the full light of the truth as it is in Jesus, 
so that we may know “ the good, and acceptable, 
and perfect will of God.” 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


“ Holy Ghost the Infinite ! 

Shine upon our natures’ night 
With thy blessed inward light, 
Comforter divine! 

“We are sinful, cleanse us, Lord ; 
We are faint, thy strength afford. 
Lost, until by thee restored, 
Comforter divine! 

“ In us, for us, intercede, 

And with voiceless groanings plead 
Our unutterable need, 

Comforter divine! 

“ Search for us the depths of God, 
Bear us up the starry road 
To the heights of thine abode, 
Comforter divine.” 


II. 


REGENERA TION NECESSA R Y. 

"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say 
unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the 
kingdom of God.” John , iii. 3. 

Nicodemus came to the Saviour with fair and 
complimentary speeches, evidently desiring and ex¬ 
pecting to be thought well of by him. He was, no 
doubt, a reputable man among his people, and held 
a position of honor and influence. It was but natu¬ 
ral for him to suppose that the Teacher from Gali¬ 
lee, who had begun to attract public attention, but 
who had as yet no followers among the great ones, 
the people of influence in the land, would receive 
him most cordially, and be glad to count him among 
his friends. He was not ready yet to be considered 
a disciple, therefore he came by night. 

But so far from seeming flattered by the visit, or 
appearing to court the favor of his visitor, the Mas¬ 
ter met him with words that must have surprised, 
and even startled him exceedingly. It was as though 
he had said :—“ Nicodemus, I understand you thor¬ 
oughly, you are half convinced of my Messiahship, 
and wish to be in my confidence, and think that, by 


20 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


and by you may wish a place in my kingdom :—You 
think yourself entitled to my favor because you are 
a moral man, a keeper of the law, and a lineal de¬ 
scendant of Abraham. But you must understand, 
once for all, that my kingdom is a spiritual one ; 
not at all a continuation, or restoration, of the Jew¬ 
ish ; and that no man, be he Jew or Gentile, can 
come into it unless he be born again. The rule ad¬ 
mits of no exceptions. All must be so changed by 
divine power as to become spiritually new crea¬ 
tures ; so changed that they will live a new, a holy 
life.” 

From all that appears, Nicodemus was a man in 
whose favor an exception could have been made, if 
one could have been anywhere. But none could be 
then ; nor can be now. The rule is a sweeping one, 
“ Except a man be born again he cannot see the 
Kingdom of God.” Nor is this rule an arbitrary 
one, established without a clear necessity. It grows 
out of the nature and circumstances of the case. It 
is clearly taught in the scriptures; it is also evident 
from human experience that, 

The natural , unregenerate man lacks the per¬ 
ceptive facilities necessary to enable him to under¬ 
stand and enjoy God. 

In I Cor., ii, 14, it is said, “But the natural 
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; 
for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he 
know them because they are spiritually discerned.” 
This passage is a plain one. It asserts that man in 


REGENERATION NECESSARY. 


21 


his natural soul-life, (the word i pvxmoc, of the origi¬ 
nal, here rendered “ natural,” refers to the soul, 
and describes its state, rather than that of the body 
or flesh,) is incapable, from the lack of the necessary 
faculties or powers, of understanding the spiritual 
things of the gospel. In other words, he is incapa¬ 
ble of being a true servant and worshiper of God, 
because he cannot understand his relations to God. 
The hour has come when true worshipers must wor¬ 
ship in spirit and in truth. The day of forms 
and ritual observances, of altars and slain beasts, 
and priestly mediation, is gone. For him who 
would worship now, there is no priest lower than 
Jesus. Through him, each man must for himself 
draw near to God. But without divine aid he can¬ 
not, because his mind is dark in regard to the things 
of God. 

This lack of perceptive faculties is compared to 
blindness and deafness. Jesus said of the Phari¬ 
sees, “ they are blind leaders of the blind.” Paul, 
writing to the Ephesians, speaks of the Gentiles as 
“ having the understanding darkened ;” and to the 
Christians he says, “ The eyes of your understand¬ 
ing being enlightened,” etc. In his speech before 
Agrippa, he says of himself, that he was sent to the 
Gentiles to open their eyes, and to turn them from 
darkness to light. Isaiah speaks of those who, in 
the day of Christ, will be called to come to him, as 
“ the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who 
have ears.” Of courso we must not understand this 


22 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


blindness as an intellectual one. It is blindness of 
the heart. And yet the heart does often affect the 
intellect strangely. Unregenerate men get strange 
ideas of God. Besides, it is with the heart that man 
believeth unto righteousness ; and the heart of an 
un regenerate man can no more receive and enjoy 
God as a friend, a father, or an object of true and 
loving worship, than one bom blind can understand 
and enjoy the beauties of color in the summer 
landscape. 

This same lack of perceptive faculty is indicated 
in those scriptures which speak of men as dead ; 
such as Eph. ii, 1, 5. “ And you hath he quickened, 
who were dead in trespasses and sins,”—“even 
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us 
together with Christ.” Now, it is not true that 
men are, by nature, dead in trespasses and sins, in 
such a sense as that they have no moral capacity, 
can attain to no moral excellence. Beyond ques¬ 
tion they may, without regeneration, without even 
the gospel, be benevolent, conscientious, honest, 
truthful, kind and affectionate. 

But it is true that all men, even the very best, 
who are living “ the life of nature,” are so separated 
from God by Wicked works, by trespasses and sins, 
that they seem at a distance from him, and to have 
no spiritual relations with him, yet God is the true 
and proper life of every soul. And all separated 
from him are dead, spiritually dead. It was in this 
sense that Adam died in the day of his first sin ; 


REGENERATION NECESSARY. 


23 


and in this sense all his children are dead. So the 
life which the gospel gives is a revealing, and en- 
templing of God in the soul. “ This is eternal life, 
that they might know thee the only true God, and 
Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” 

Christian experience, too, as well as the scrip¬ 
tures, speak decisively on this point. Nearly every 
one who truly knows and loves God, is conscious of 
having passed through a spiritual change that was 
like awaking out of sleep, or being raised from the 
dead. He knows how, feelingly to quote the words 
of the man whose eyes Jesus opened, “ Whereas I 
was once blind now I see.” It is true that there are 
exceptions to this rule. There is, now and then, 
one who is brought to the knowledge of God so 
young, that he seems almost to have been a Naza- 
rite from his mother’s womb. He seems to grow 
into a true and saving faith, and into such love 
for, and consecration to, God that we cannot 
doubt his being alive in Christ. But these ex¬ 
ceptions, here and there, prove nothing against the 
rule. Most Christians remember well that when 
the morning dawned in which they were first able 
to see God as their Father, and Christ as their 
Saviour, it seemed to them as though they had 
awaked in a new world. Everything was different 
from what it had been. The Bible was to them 
a new book; and the conversation of Christian 
people about God and his dealings, once as unin¬ 
teresting as an unknown tongue, had now come 


24 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


to be more sweet and attractive than any earthly 
pleasure. 

What would heaven have been to them before 
the opening of their spiritual eyes ; before this 
quickening of their souls ? Would God’s presence 
have been a joy ? Was it even possible for them to 
have been true and faithful servants of God on the 
earth ? Certainly not. The service which God 
requires is loving, trustful service. To love God and 
trust him, believe on him, one must be born again. 

Again,— Mankind have ever , in all times and 
places , exhibited a tendency to forget God and lose 
even an intellectual knowledge of him. 

God has taken especial care to reveal himself, to 
make himself known to his intelligent creatures in 
this world. By his works he has manifested his exis¬ 
tence, his wisdom, his goodness and his power. And 
from time to time, all along down through the ages, 
he has made special revelations of his will. But Paul 
says of the heathen that “ they do not like to retain 
God in their knowledge,” and the careful student 
of human history will be impressed with the con¬ 
viction, that men everywhere, in all the ages, have 
found it easier to forget than to remember him. It 
is not necessary that we should depend upon Bible 
history for illustration of this. We may look over 
the lands where in past centuries the gospel was 
preached in all its fullness. We can take those, if 
we will, where it is known that the apostles them¬ 
selves preached. Over some of them Mohammedan-* 


RE GENERA TI0 N NECESSAR Y. 


25 


ism has swept like a devouring flame, destroying 
almost all vestiges of a pure gospel. We may leave 
such ones out, as not fair illustrations; although 
Mohammedanism itself is hardly anything but a cor¬ 
ruption of Christianity. Take others—the countries ' 
where the Greek church prevails. Has the light of 
truth and holiness remained there ? The people 
are Christians in name ; and are sufficiently devout 
in their worship of pictures of the Virgin Mary and 
the Saints. They are in truth as much idolaters as 
the worshipers of Guadama, and are found to-day 
quite as inaccessible as they, to the truth and prin¬ 
ciples of the Bible. Take the countries ruled by 
Home—they are in a condition almost equally bad. 
Spain is idolatrous, and France infidel to-day. 
Other popish countries in both Europe and America 
are indifferently better or worse. Look at Ger¬ 
many—over which the Reformation of Luther’s 
time swept so gloriously. Lutheran Germany needs 
to-day to be redeemed from rationalism and infidelity 
as much as it did from Popery when Tetzel hawked 
indulgences through its towns. Look anywhere, 
everywhere, and you shall see that in the most fa¬ 
vored spots, in those where the Sun of Righteousness 
has shone in its meridian glory, unless there has 
been a constant struggle on the part of those who 
truly love God, to keep the gospel before the minds 
of men, and a constant pouring of the Holy Spirit 
into the souls of men in regeneration, there has 
been a constant and certain flowing in of irreligion 


# 26 BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 

and infidelity. In our own country there is many 
a place where the churches have been strong, and 
almost controlling in their influence, and yet now, 
spiritism and universalism and infidelity have taken 
almost entire possession. 

The tendency of human nature to backslide 
from God finds as true, and almost as striking illus¬ 
trations now as were furnished by the Israelites 
when they murmured against God and Moses on 
the shore of the Red Sea; made a calf and wor¬ 
shiped it at the foot of Sinai; joined in the idolatry 
of the Midianites before they were fairly out of the 
desert; and were bowing down to the gods of the 
Canaanites before the swords of Joshua and his 
army were hardly dry. The plain, clear teaching 
of all this cannot be mistaken. Fallen human na¬ 
ture exhibits no affinity for God, but a tendency, 
constant and strong, to turn away from and forget 
him. And there is no remedy but in the New 
Birth;—in hearts renewed in love, and made and 
kept alive unto God by the indwelling Holy Spirit. 

Another reason why regeneration is necessary is, 
mankind do not naturally love God , hut are in heart 
opposed to him. 

In Rom. viii. 7, it is said, “ The carnal mind is 
enmity against God ; for it is not subject to the law 
of God, neither indeed can be.” This is strong lan¬ 
guage ; and no doubt there are many who think it 
should be softened in some way, rather than be taken 
according to the full force of the words. But let us 


REGENERATION NE CESS A R Y. 


27 


suppose ourselves to be standing in the place called 
Golgotha, on the morning when Jesus was led forth 
to be crucified; let us remember that he who now 
comes bearing his cross, wearing a crown of thorns, 
and seeming the especial object of the hatred and 
malicious persecution of the crowd, is God’s well- 
beloved Son—yes, more—is “God manifest in the 
flesh let us reflect, that through his whole life as 
a man he has been, not merely inoffensive, but 
kindly, lovingly'benevolent, and that his only offence 
has been that he has set God’s claims and purposes 
before the people in a way not congenial to their 
feelings, and we can but feel that the scene shows 
up human nature in a terrible light, and fully jus¬ 
tifies the words of the Apostle. Those people, who 
so madly cried “ Crucify him ! Crucify him !” were 
not worse, so far as appears, than other people of 
other climes and times. They were sinful men in 
rebellion against God ; the preaching of Jesus had 
disturbed their consciences, and threatened to inter¬ 
fere with their ambitious schemes ; this made them 
hate him, and so against him they raised a cruel, 
bloodthirsty mob, and persecuted him unto death. 
In doing this they were representatives of their 
race,—of mankind,—and their sin was the sin of 
human nature. 

But there are many persons who know themselves 
unregenerate, who yet honestly think they love God, 
and feel sure that under no circumstances could they 
have joined in persecuting Jesus or his followers. 


28 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


Yes, there are many such ;—but, it is probable 
that this class are mostly in prosperity ; God’s prov¬ 
idence seems to favor their views and wishes ; they 
think he is kind to them, and so mistake a pleasant, 
complacent, friendly feeling toward him for love. 

Let circumstances be changed ; let adversity 
come, let their cherished plans be frustrated, their 
hopes be blasted, an idolized child, or companion, 
or friend be taken from them, and if they think of 
God at all, as appointing their lot,“they will proba¬ 
bly find their feelings undergoing an important 
change. Satan did not appear to understand Job. 
but he did understand human nature when he said 
to the Lord, 6i Put forth thy hand now and touch 
all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.” 

If these persons or any others would test their 
love to God, let them inquire how love—true, real 
love—manifests itself ; and then, if their love to 
God manifests itself in the same ways. Doing this, 
they will observe, that, 

All true love is consecrating . Observe it when 
we will, we see that love delights in giving its treas¬ 
ures and its service to the beloved one, and instinct¬ 
ively seeks to please that one. Love which does not 
do this is a sham. Now, do they seek earnestly, 
day by day, to serve and please God ? Do the un¬ 
converted people of the world generally do this ? 
Certainly not. In their daily plans and purposes 
God’s will is not a consideration. They do not in¬ 
quire what it is,—and if it be forced upon their 


RE GENERA TION NECESSA R T. 


29 


attention, they pay little or no regard to it. It is 
true that there are multitudes in every land who are 
ready to give to religion, but they give with the idea 
that there is merit in giving. If we could rid them 
of this thought, we should find few givers, or toilers, 
or burden-bearers for God, except among those who 
are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” 
But, again,— 

Love delights in the society of the loved one. This 
is always so, and we may be sure that all who truly 
love God seek his society—seek communion with 
him, and when he is absent or seems absent, long for 
his presence. They long too for the time when they 
may see him face to face. They understand the 
feeling of the Psalmist when he sung, “As the hart 
panteth for the water brooks, so panteth my soul after 
thee, 0 God ! My soul thirsteth for God, for the 
living God ; when shall I come and appear before 
God !”—Now God has promised that those who seek 
him truly and earnestly shall not seek in vain. He 
has promised to manifest himself to them, and he 
does it, in their closets, and especially in the place 
where two or three of them have met in his name. 
But the people of the world generally do not seek 
him, do not desire communion with him. They may 
pray;—they may have a natural, almost an instinct¬ 
ive desire to worship ; they have filled the earth with 
temples and altars, and made innumerable forms of 
prayer, which they have repeated with such con¬ 
stancy that from age to age, the sound of them has 


30 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


never ceased. And yet they have never in any age, 
or in any land, shown a natural love for the spiritual 
worship of the gospel. To-day, after eighteen cen¬ 
turies of gospel influences, the number who truly 
“ worship the Father in spirit and in truth,” seems 
comparatively small. Men appear to love to pray, 
just in proportion as prayer is a form, and is sup¬ 
posed to be in some degree meritorious. They do 
not either seek for, or understand spiritual com¬ 
munion with a holy God. 

Other tests of love will occur to the minds of all 
thoughtful persons, in connection with this question, 
but it is not necessary to notice them here. It is 
abundantly evident that men do not naturally love 
God, and that they need to be changed in heart be¬ 
fore they can ever dwell with him. 

Jesus said. “ If any man love me he will keep my 
words; and my Father will love him, and we will 
come to him, and make our abode with him.” If 
the Father and the Son do come to us ; if they are 
revealed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit; then we 
may be sure not only that we love God, but that we 
are born of God, and are saved. Then for us heaven 
is begun on earth. But, “ he who loveth not knoweth 
not God, for God is love,” and for such a one there 
is no heaven, in this world or that which is to come. 

But —Mankind do not in their natural state trust 
God; hut on the contrary , unbelief is one of the 
marked features of fallen human nature . 

This lack of trust, of faith, many regard as a 


REGENERATION NECESSARY. 


31 


thing wholly involuntary and of course as not culpa¬ 
ble. They appear to think that it arises wholly from 
lack of evidence, and that the will has nothing to do 
with it. God very evidently sees the matter in a dif¬ 
ferent light. He not only regards unbelief as sin, but 
appears to think it the great sin of the world. Let us 
reflect that God is to be our Judge, and we must 
stand or fall as he decides, not by our own opinions. 

But in what the gospel calls faith, there is un¬ 
questionably a strong element of will; and because 
the will is prompted by the heart—the affections— 
it is spoken of as a thing of the heart, rather than 
of the mind. “ With the heart man believeth unto 
righteousness .” So wherever the gospel comes, a 
lack of faith in God, and especially in Christ, is re¬ 
garded as implying, not a lack of evidence but a 
state of the heart, such that under its guidance the 
will is in opposition to God. 

The experience of all Christians is that when the 
heart is changed so that it comes to be in harmony 
with God, then faith,—trust, perfect trust—is easy. 
A state of trust becomes as much the condition and 
habit of the soul as unbelief was before. This, of 
itself, 'would seem to be conclusive against the idea 
that faith depends alone on evidence, because nobody 
supposes a regenerate person to be changed in mind, 
or intellect, from his previous state ; nor that by 
this change there is brought before his mind any 
new evidence. The mental eyes are opened by the 
willing heart; that is all. 


32 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


Taking this view of unbelief we shall not think it 
strange that the Holy Spirit, when sent into the world 
to convict men of sin, should charge them first and 
chiefly with this, that they do not believe on the Son 
of God. Wherever the gospel is faithfully preached 
“ Jesus Christ is evidently set forth—crucified 
among ” the people. There is no lack of evidence— 
no lack of light. But people turn from Jesus now, 
just as in the days of his flesh the Jews went away 
from the just opened grave of Lazarus, to plot how 
they might destroy him. Enmity—opposition of 
heart—was what hindered faith then, and prevents 
it still. Unbelief, then, is little else but rebellion 
against God, and so may well stand as representa¬ 
tive of all sin. 

An unbelieving, untrustful person is not a Chris¬ 
tian, cannot be a true servant of God, and cannot 
possibly have a place in the heaven where God has 
prepared a home for those who believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ. For such a one, heaven would be a 
place of misery rather than of joy, and his presence 
there could not but be an element of disturbance 
and sorrow. There will be none such there. Every 
one who finds a home in the “ many mansions” will 
have passed through a change which will make it 
impossible for him to do otherwise than trust God 
with all his heart. That change is not death, but 
the new birth. 

Another reason why man must be born again is 
found in the fact, that. 


REGENERATION NECESSARY. 


33 


All men are naturally selfish, and so unfit for 
heaven. 

Selfishness in heaven ! The very thought startles 
one ! If selfishness reigned in heaven as it does on 
earth, heaven would be only another hell. On 
earth it has been like the fabled box of Pandora, out 
of which all evils sprang. Selfishness is but another 
name for sin. Its very essence consists in this, that 
God is dethroned in the temple of the heart, and 
self reigns in his stead. In its practical working 
among men, selfishness may be so veiled and dis¬ 
guised that its true character hardly appears. It 
may even seem to men almost a virtue. Indeed it 
is true, that men seldom blush to confess themselves 
selfish. It is quite generally thought that selfish¬ 
ness is not only universal but necessary. And yet, 
it is not only the bane of almost every human rela¬ 
tion, but it has totally separated man from his God. 
But for its rise in their hearts, Adam and Eve would 
have remained sinless. But for it, there would have 
been no lying, no double dealing, no cheating, no 
theft or robbery, no jealousies, backbitings and 
quarrels among neighbors; none of that lust for 
power which has- filled the earth with violence ; 
wars, with the oceans of blood and tears which they 
have caused to flow, would not have been, and earth 
would have been still a paradise. And, but for it, 
there would be now no difficulty in bringing about 
a reconciliation between man and his God. Just so 
soon as any soul is self-renounced, and from the 
2 * 


34 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


heart obedient to the law of love, God comes to 
dwell in it, and it dwells in God. 

But will the regeneration of a soul produce this 
self-renunciation and obedience ? Most certainly it 
will, and does, where it is a completed work. The 
very essence and meaning of the change is, that 
love—Christian, holy love, takes the place of selfish¬ 
ness in the heart. “ Every one that loveth is born of 
God and knoweth God.” Love and selfishness are 
opposites, are antagonistic principles. The reason 
why so little love and so much selfishness is mani¬ 
fested among those who profess to be Christians, is 
that the regeneration, if begun in them, is not a 
completed work as yet. They “ are yet carnal, and 
walk as men.” 

Once more,— The nature of man is not only had , 
hut there is a manifest tendency to grow worse , to 
deteriorate and corrupt itself more and more . 

There are those who deny this, and claim that 
human nature possesses in itself recuperative moral 
powers which are equal to its needs, and which will 
eventually lift the race to purity and happiness. It 
would be useless to quote from the Bible to this 
class of persons,—philosophers they are called, be¬ 
cause they do not believe the Bible. It has to them 
no more authority than any other book. They are 
in fact its opposers. But we may ask them to note 
and explain the fact that there is nowhere on the 
wide earth a known spot, where these restorative 
forces have done the work claimed for them, and 


REGENERATION NECESSARY. 


35 


lifted a nation, a tribe or even a neighborhood, to 
moral purity and happiness, without the aid of the 
gospel. We may ask them why it is that in spite 
of the admitted and boasted excellence of the moral 
precepts of Brahminism and Boodhism, the moral 
atmosphere of India and China is pestiferous with 
festering corruption. The atmosphere of the far- 
famed Black Hole of Calcutta was not more deadly 
to its inmates than is the moral atmosphere of all 
heathen lands to the souls of men. We may also 
ask our friends to tell us how, according to their 
theory, it has come to pass that congregated masses 
of mankind, such as great cities and great armies, 
have usually been hotbeds of vice and siu. 

The truth seems to be that a philosopher who 
studies human nature only where the full light of 
the gospel shines, and where its restraining and 
saving influences are felt by every individual, or one 
who retires to a hermitage, and dreams of what men 
might be, is very likely to be misled on this ques¬ 
tion. 

To most of us the Bible is authority. We will 
turn to its teachings. And we will do this with 
double confidence, because it is a mirror in which 
human nature is most perfectly reflected. Study¬ 
ing it, we cannot fail to observe how the people who 
lived before the flood corrupted themselves. It was 
but a little time after they became numerous, before 
it is said of them, that “ the wickedness of man was 
great upon the earth, and that every imagination of 


36 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” 
Gen. vi, 5. Why was this ? If there had been a 
tendency in human nature toward the cure of its 
own moral maladies, like the power of life in the 
physical man, the power that physicians call the 
vis medicatrix natures , the result would have 
been different. If there had been even life enough 
te prevent decay, and hold things as they were, the 
deluge would not have been rendered necessary. 
But there was no spiritual life. Men were “ dead 
in trespasses and sins ; ” and so the natural ten¬ 
dency was to moral putrefaction and rottenness. 

After the deluge things were hardly different. 
The descendants of Noah became very wicked in a 
little time, so that God said of them, “ The imagi¬ 
nation of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Even 
the Israelites, though chosen by the Lord as his 
peculiar people, and from age to age kept almost 
constantly under the restraints of priestly and 
prophetic teachings, showed this fatal tendency to 
backslide and seek the ways of sin, so fully that it 
seems the most remarkable trait of their history. 
We are again reminded that God said of them, 
“ What could have been done more to my vineyard 
that I have not done in it ? wherefore, when I 
looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it 
forth wild grapes.” Isa. v, 4. As the centuries 
rolled by they became so corrupt that even their 
religious teachers were utterly abandoned. Jere¬ 
miah says of them, “ I have seen also in the proph- 


REGENERATION NECESSARY. 


37 


ets of Jerusalem an horrible thing, they commit 
adultery, and walk in lies ; they strengthen also the 
hands of evil doers, that none doth return from his 
wickedness ; they are all of them unto me as Sodom, 
and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.” Jer. 
xxiii, 14. 

Paul, in Rom. i, ii, iii, gives a most terrible pic¬ 
ture of the moral condition of the heathen world of 
his day. That that picture is true now,—that there 
has been no improvement in heathenism for eighteen 
hundred years, is proved by the concurrent testimony 
of missionaries and others who have spent their lives 
on heathen ground. Rev. M. J. Knowlton, of 
Ningpo, China, speaking of the passage alluded to, 
says,—“It is a picture so faithful, so true to the 
life, chat heathen in every land acknowledge its cor¬ 
rectness as applied to them ; and there have been 
instances where the heathen have charged the mis¬ 
sionaries with writing these passages from the living 
examples present before them. It would be impos¬ 
sible to find language more exact and appropriate 
to describe the sins of the Chinese, as I have become 
acquainted with them by a long residence among 
them, than that used by the apostle. And I believe 
the same statement would be made by every mis¬ 
sionary in every heathen land.” 

Our Lord called his disciples, “ The salt of the 
earth.” He must have meant by this, that they 
were to exert—that he expected them to exert, an 
antiseptic, a preservative influence upon the world. 


38 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


He evidently felt that such an influence was called 
for, that something was needed to check the bad and 
corrupting tendencies of human nature. We can¬ 
not doubt but that he knew what was needed. This 
preservative influence God’s children have always 
exerted. Wherever they have gone, carrying the 
gospel, the tide of evil has been stemmed, and to 
some extent rolled back. 

And yet, even in Christian lands, regeneration, 
the renewing of the soul in love, attended as it 
must be by the present, indwelling power of the 
Holy Spirit, is indispensable to the success of the 
gospel. Wherever this has ceased to be preached, 
and believed in, and experienced, there have been 
backsliding and formality, and religious deadness 
—“ the salt has lost his savor.” 

We conclude then, that fallen man is morally 
bad and tending to grow worse,—bad in the aggre¬ 
gate and bad in each and every individual case; and 
that there is for him no remedy, and no hope but in 
such a change as the new birth. And the words 
of Jesus, “ Ye must be born again,” ought to ring 
perpetually in the ears of every human being. 

** Sinner, art thou still secure ? 

Wilt thou still refuse to pray? 

Can thy heart or hands endure 
In the Lord’s avenging day ? 

See His mighty arm made bare ! 

Awful terrors clothe his brow! 

For his judgment now prepare, 

Thou must either break or bow. 


REGENERATION NECESSARY. 


39 


“ Lord, prepare us by Thy grace, 

Soon we must resign our breath, 

And our souls be called to pass 
Through the iron gate of death. 

Let us now our day improve. 

Listen to the gospel voice ; 

Seek the things that are above ; 

Scorn the world’s pretended joys.” 

Newton. 



III. 


RITUAL REGENERATION. 

u If ye be dead witb Christ from the rudiments of the 
world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to 
ordinances ? ” Col. ii. 20. 

Prof. Austin Phelps, in his work on “The 
New Birth,” says:—“We must rank among the 
tokens of intellectual disease, we must regard as 
a degradation in a civilized mind, that taste which 
leads one to protrude a Christian baptism, or the 
imposition of consecrated hands, or the profession 
of a Christian creed, or communion with a Christian 
church, or the reception of the Lord’s Supper, in 
advance of that work of God’s spirit by which a sin¬ 
ner is born again. It seems like solemn trifling to 
debate on such a faith.” 

This is strong language ; and however much we 
may sympathize with the feeling which prompted 
it, we may well hesitate about adopting it. The 
truth is, that ritualism is too firmly rooted in the 
Christian church to be put down by contempt, or 
brushed out of one’s way by a sneer. We must, 
with Dr. Doddridge, “acknowledge that many 
learned and pious divines have taught and con- 


RITUAL REGENERATION. 


41 


tended, that regeneration, does in the strictest pro¬ 
priety of speech signify baptism,—so that no unbap¬ 
tized person how well disposed soever, can properly 
be said to be regenerated ; whereas that title may 
justly he given to all who have been baptized, how¬ 
ever destitute they might have been of Christian 
faith and holiness, when they received the ordi¬ 
nance, or however grossly they may since have for¬ 
feited the final blessings of a regenerate state.” The 
Doctor says farther :—“ I readily own that the word 
has this sense in the generality of the Christian 
writers from about the middle of the second cen¬ 
tury.” 

Here is a great fact that demands candid study. 
If this error has been so widely spread, and ha3 been 
so tenacious in its hold upon the intellect and heart 
of Christendom, it must be that it is of a natural 
growth, and has roots that run deep into the soil of 
human nature. We shall find this to be true ; and 
we shall also find it true that it is a part, and a 
necessary part of a religious system, which not only 
has been strong in past ages, but is now exceedingly 
strong all over Christendom, and is struggling with 
a vigor that seems youthful, for the complete con¬ 
trol of the Christian world. 

When our Saviour said to the “ woman of Sa¬ 
maria ,”—“ Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, 
when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at 
Jerusalem, worship the Father.—But, the true 
worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in 


42 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him,” 
—he indicated the great and radical difference be¬ 
tween the worship of the gospel, and the worship of 
preceding dispensations. The great features of re¬ 
ligion in the past days had been temples, and altars, 
and priests, and rites. In the future—in the gospel 
day,—all these were to disappear and be unknown. 
When Christ, dying upon the cross, uttered the 
words, “ it is finished,” the temple vail was rent 
asunder ; and any special sanctity which had at¬ 
tached to the most holy place departed forever. 
Henceforth Christ, apprehended by faith, was the 
only true mercy-seat, and Christian hearts the only 
earthly abode of the Shekinah. From this time re¬ 
ligion became a personal matter between God and 
each soul; and no priest or mediator but Jesus 
might be permitted to come between souls and God. 

We cannot fix this distinctive feature of the gos¬ 
pel plan too firmly and clearly in our minds. We 
have need to fix it there, because the reaction 
against it in the Christian consciousness, which be¬ 
gan very soon, we may say immediately, has con¬ 
tinued and been very strong through all the ages 
until now. 

If we ask why such a reaction has existed, we 
may easily discover two principal and sufficient rea¬ 
sons for it. 

1. Most of the early converts to Christianity were 
Jews, and had a natural and very strong attach¬ 
ment to the faith and worship of their fathers. 


RITUAL REGENERATION. 


43 


They could not understand why that worship should 
be given up. The religion taught by Christ seemed 
to them supplementary to that of Moses. They 
were “ all zealous for the law.” Paul was almost 
wholly free from such feeling ; more than any other 
of the apostles he understood the deep meaning of 
the gospel, and well knew that all the old rites and 
ordinances had been nailed to the cross; and yet, 
when, after many years of service in the apostolic 
ministry, he went up to Jerusalem, the pressure of 
the ritualism in the church there was so great upon 
him that he, too, must needs conform to the tem¬ 
ple worship and submit to rites which he well knew 
had been abrogated long before. In this state of 
things it would follow as a matter of course that 
ritualistic ideas would become engrafted upon the 
gospel, and be propagated wherever Jewish influence 
extended ; and that in time a Christian ritual would 
grow up, embodying as much of Judaism as could 
be made in any way compatible with Christianity. 

2. It is not easy for fallen human nature to un¬ 
derstand and receive a purely spiritual religion. 
Men will become religious readily enough; and 
there are but few people who are not more comforta¬ 
ble to be religious, if their religion be not too exact¬ 
ing. But when religion demands holiness of heart 
and of life, and brings the sinner face to face with 
God, the Holy One, multitudes draw back. They 
prefer a religion which can be carried on as much 
as possible by proxy, and therefore, desire a human 


44 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


priesthood, and propitiatory rites; and they like to 
have their religion and their daily life interfere with 
each other as little as possible ; and so, like the Ga¬ 
latians they “ observe days and times/’ and “ works 
of the law.” 

It does, certainly, seem strange that any influ¬ 
ence should have been sufficient to mislead the dis¬ 
ciples who were under npostolic teachings, but we 
know that the Galatians were “bewitched” and led 
away “into another gospel” by judaizing and ritu¬ 
alistic teachers ; and they do not appear to have been 
alone in this. Of course the influence of the apos¬ 
tles would restrain this bad tendency, and greatly aid 
to keep alive the spirituality of the churches; and 
though “the mystery of iniquity did already work,” 
it did not become a controlling power until after they 
were dead. Then “grievous wolves” entered in 
among the disciples—ambitious men, who, knowing 
that a priesthood is always more powerful than a 
simple ministry, fostered the tendency toward ritu¬ 
alism, in order that they might “make a gain” of 
the disciples, and fatten upon the flock of God. 

We all know the result. We know that in less 
than one hundred years from the death of Paul, 
ritualism was firmly established as the dominant 
faith of the church. The church itself, as an or¬ 
ganism, had become, in the apprehension of the peo¬ 
ple, the mystical body of Christ, out of which there 
could be no salvation. Baptism, from being a sym¬ 
bolic ordinance, illustrating regeneration, had come 


RITUAL REGENERATION. 


45 


to be regarded as regeneration itself. Irenaeus—we 
shall recollect, was Bishop of Lyons, and one of 
the most eminent, and we may safely say evangelical 
church teachers of his day. His ministry was in the 
latter half of the second century. Neander says :— 
“Regeneration and baptism are in Irenaeus inti¬ 
mately connected ; and it is difficult to conceive 
how the term regeneration can be employed, in 
reference to this age, to denote anything else than 
Baptism.” (Ch. Hist. Vol. I., p. 311.) 

Very soon the priestly character of the ministry 
became firmly established ; and it was generally be¬ 
lieved that consecrated hands could bestow or with¬ 
hold, at pleasure, the blessings of salvation. About 
the middle of the third century Cyprian was bishop 
of the church in Carthage, and the leader of the 
North African church. Speaking of his time Ne- 
ander says :—“The error became firmly established 
that without external baptism no one could be de¬ 
livered from that inherent guilt” (of original sin), 
“could be saved from the everlasting punishment 
that threatened him, or raised to eternal life; and 
when the notion of a magical influence, a charm, 
connected with the sacraments continually gained 
ground, the theory was finally evolved of the un¬ 
conditional necessity of infant baptism. The only 
question that remained was, whether the child 
ought to be baptized immediately after birth, or 
not till eight days after, as in the case of the rite 
of circumcision. The latter was the opinion of 


46 BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 

bishop Fidus who proposed the question in a council 
convened at Carthage. Cyprian answered it in the 
year 252, in the name of sixty-six bishops. He said : 
— 44 None of us could agree to your opinion. On the 
contrary it is the opinion of us all, that the mercy 
and grace of God must be refused to no human be¬ 
ing so soon as he is born ; for since our Lord says 
in his gospel, ‘ The Son of Man is not come to de¬ 
stroy men’s souls but to save them/ Luke ix : 50, so 
everything that lies in our power must be done that 
no soul may be lost. As to what you say, that the 
child in the first days of its birth is not clean to the 
touch, and that each of us would shrink from kiss¬ 
ing such an object, even this, in our opinion, ought 
to present no obstacle to the bestowment of the heav¬ 
enly grace ; for it is written, 4 To the pure all things 
are pureand none of us ought to revolt at that 
which God has condescended to create. Although 
the child be but just born, yet it is no such object 
that any one ought to demur at kissing it to impart 
the divine grace.’” (Ch. Hist. Vol. I., p. 313.) 

This is remarkable language. It is wonderful 
that it should have been used by an intelligent 
Christian bishop so soon after the days of Paul. It 
is still more wonderful, that in a large council, em¬ 
bracing the leading and most influential pastors of 
a large and important section,—perhaps the most 
important section, of the church, there was no dis¬ 
sent from such opinions. Fidus does not appear as 
a dissentient, only he thought baptism should follow 


RITUAL REGENERATION. 


47 


the same rule in regard to age, with that laid down 
for circumcision. It shows conclusively that the 
idea of baptismal regeneration had become fully 
established ; and that the communication of divine 
and saving grace had come to be regarded as a part 
of the official work,—in some sense as a preroga¬ 
tive of the ministry. 

After this, it was only necessary that the Lord’s 
Supper should he changed into a sacrifice of the 
real body and blood of Jesus for the benefit of cer¬ 
tain specified persons, and then the elements of 
hierarchical power would be completely developed, 
and priestly rule established in the church. This 
came about in a little while, and “the Man of Sin” 
was revealed,—“ that Wicked—whom the Lord 
shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall 
destroy w T ith the brightness of his coming.” 

From the third century to the present time, the 
Catholic church, so called, has never wavered on 
the doctrine of baptismal regeneration. 

It certainly is very strange that such men as 
Augustin and Chrysostom, with their truly evan¬ 
gelical tendencies, should not have freed themselves 
from the bondage of such an error. But we must 
remember, that with them church tradition was of 
almost equal authority with the Scriptures, and in 
their day church tradition had established the idea 
that without water baptism there could be no sal¬ 
vation. Chrysostom says :—“ It is for this reason 
we baptize also infants, though they are not, like 


48 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


others, stained with sin, that so holiness, justifica¬ 
tion, adoption, heirship and brothership with Christ, 
may be imparted to them through Christ, that so 
they may be members of Christ.” (Neander, Ch. 
Hist. Vol. iii. p. 666.) Augustin does not, so far as 
I have been able to learn, speak out so fully in 
regard to what baptism was believed to do, but it is 
evident that he believed in its divine efficacy. 
Speaking of the baptism of infants he says :—“ The 
faith of the church, which consecrates infants to 
God in the spirit of love, takes the place of their 
own faith; and albeit they possess as yet no faith 
of their own, yet there is nothing in their thoughts 
to hinder the divine efficacy.” (Neander, Ch. Hist. 
Vol. ii. 670.) 

But was there no revolt, in the Christian con¬ 
sciousness of those ages, from this doctrine ? Yes ; 
but it must be looked for among the sects who, 
from time to time, separated themselves from the 
general Church ; and these sects we know so little 
about, except through their enemies, that it is as 
well, perhaps, to say nothing about them. Of the 
Paulicians, it is probably as certain as any thing in 
history, that they wholly rejected baptismal regen¬ 
eration, and even regarded water baptism as of no 
value and not required. It is said that they per¬ 
mitted priests of the Greek and Roman churches, 
who had been taken captive by them, to baptize 
their children; but, so far as appears, they never 
themselves practiced infant baptism. In the tenth 


RITUAL REGENERATION. 


49 


and eleventh centuries they became very numerous ; 
it is said that more than one hundred thousand of 
them perished by persecution during the short reign 
of the Empress Theodora,—and, scattered by the 
persecution, they spread over Europe, giving rise to 
the Albigenses and other sects that in the following 
ages protested against the errors and corruptions of 
the church. 

Of these sects we know almost nothing except 
what comes to us from their persecutors. So much 
as this we know, that many of them rejected infant 
baptism,—some rejected water baptism altogether,— 
and believed that none could be members of the 
true church but believers who lived holy lives. This 
caused them to be very widely called Cathari or 
Puritans. 

In the twelfth century, the numbers and influ¬ 
ence of these protestants against a corrupt hierarchy 
became greatly increased. Such leaders arose among 
them, as Peter of Bruys, Henry of Clugny, Peter 
Waldo and Arnold of Brescia. These and others 
declaimed loudly against the errors which prevailed 
in regard to the church sacraments, and especially 
against transubstantiation and baptismal regenera¬ 
tion. They are most of them accused of rejecting 
infant baptism,—holding it a worthless ceremony,— 
and of rebaptizing those who became believers. 
They were terribly persecuted, but their views 
spread rapidly, and soon many countries in Europe 
were filled with their followers. 

3 



50 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


During the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and 
fifteenth centuries the fires of persecution were kept 
constantly ablaze, and often tens of thousands of 
humble and inoffensive men and women perished 
in a single year. Why was this ? It was chiefly 
because these poor people struck daring and effective 
blows against the established church, and endan¬ 
gered the whole hierarchical system. That church, 
that system, was built upon the dogma of baptismal 
regeneration, and when these men preached, from 
the New Testament, that the Church of Christ was 
composed of true believers only, it was felt that 
their mouths must be stopped, or the ritualistic edi¬ 
fice would crumble down. They could not be put 
down by argument, or appeal to the scriptures, for 
they were more than a match for their opposers ; 
and so the sword, the sack, and the fagot were re¬ 
sorted to. 

Early in the sixteenth century the Reformation 
began. In 1520, the Pope issued the Bull of Excom¬ 
munication against Luther, and Luther publicly 
burned it; thus breaking forever with Rome. But, 
in leaving Rome, the leading reformers did not give 
up the Romish idea of the church. The bride of 
Christ,—the body of Christ,—the church, was still 
to them a visible organized earthly body ; and the 
church sacraments were still held to possess divine 
efficacy. Luther, with his compeers, and the Eng¬ 
lish reformers held stoutly to baptismal regenera¬ 
tion, and opposed and persecuted those who denied 


RITUAL REGENERATION. 


51 


it, and rejected infant baptism, with a zeal and bit¬ 
terness worthy of Rome herself. 

This may well seem strange to us. And yet, if 
we recall Luther’s extreme bitterness toward Zuing- 
lius and the Swiss reformers on account of a differ¬ 
ence in regard to the Lord’s Supper, we shall not 
wonder at his attempting to crush what he thought 
a great heresy. The truth is, Luther was a natural 
Autocrat. Had he been Pope, instead of reformer, 
he would have been a second Hildebrand. Nor need 
we wonder at his clinging to baptismal regeneration. 
To have renounced it would have placed him almost 
with the Anabaptists, who were accounted to hold 
doctrines subversive, not only of the church, but 
also of the state. Some of whom, also, were, no 
doubt, wildly fanatical; and even the more mode¬ 
rate were, in their opinions too far ahead of their 
time to be tolerated. The leading reformers shrank 
away from them with repugnance, and kept as far 
as possible from their views. 

As regards Calvin and the Swiss reformers, it 
would be too much, perhaps, to say that they 
retained baptismal regeneration in their creed. We 
know that they retained infant baptism, and 
regarded those who rejected it as pestilent heretics 
and subverters of the church. It appears, too, that 
they attached the idea of “ divine efficacy ” to the 
rite, and believed that those who had been baptized 
stood, somehow, in quite different relations to God 
from others. 


52 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


At the present time, it is difficult even to ap¬ 
proximate to a knowledge of the extent to which 
baptismal regeneration prevails as a belief in the 
churches. The position of the Romanists we 
know ;—that of the Episcopalians in England and 
this country is not doubtful;—nor is that of the 
Lutherans ; although many of the German theolo¬ 
gians would probably wish to qualify the term 
somewhat, if called upon to express their belief in 
it. It is gratifying, also, to know, that there are 
many Episcopalians who revolt against the use of 
the word ‘•'regenerate/’ in the baptismal service for 
infants. But the high-churchmen are most con¬ 
sistent with their system. When baptismal regene¬ 
ration is given up by “ the church,” it ceases at 
once to be “the church —its pretensions must be 
given up, and its ideal character will be totally 
changed. 

Of the other pedo-baptist denominations, it is 
best, perhaps, to say nothing, because it is so diffi¬ 
cult to ascertain what can be truthfully said. We 
know that very many parents do not wish to have 
their children baptized. We may be sure that many 
others regard the baptism of their children as merely 
a solemn and public consecration of them to God. 
Others, it is evident, think the relations of a baptized 
child to God are quite different from those of the 
unbaptized. Remarks dropped every now and then 
show that they think a baptized child much safer in 
the event of death than others. 



RITUAL REGENERATION\ 


53 


It may be remarked, however, that these de¬ 
nominations are none of them very pronounced in 
their ideas of the visible church. Few among them 
are high-churchmen. And almost universally they 
use the term regeneration to signify a change 
of character and life, wrought in man, after coming 
to years of accountability, by the word and spirit of 
God. 

Among the denominations that reject infant 
baptism as unscriptural, one, the Disciples, or Camp- 
bellites, holds undeniably to the identity of baptism 
and regeneration. Their teachings on this point 
are summed up by Dr. Jeter, in “ Campbellism 
Examined ” (page 196) as follows :—“ The substance 
of the Reformation, on this point, as developed in 
the ‘ Millennial Harbinger Extra,’ and perpetuated 
in the ‘ Christian System,’ is this,—converts 
made to Jesus Christ by the apostles were taught to 
consider themselves pardoned, justified, sanctified, 
reconciled, adopted and saved. These terms are 
expressive, not of any moral quality, but of a state 
or condition. This change of state is effected, not 
by any change of views or of feelings, nor by faith, 
but by an act resulting from faith,—and this act is 
Immersion, called with equal propriety Conversion 
or Regeneration. 

The Baptist denomination in America and in 
England is understood to stand opposed, as a body, 
to this idea of baptismal regeneration in all its 
forms. 


54 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


But, in some parts of our country, there is an 
evident tendency towards a sort of high-churchism, 
and in connection with this we see every now and 
then a cropping out of the idea that there is, some¬ 
how, “a divine efficacy in baptism.” 

Thus much in regard to the views which have 
been entertained as to the relations of baptism and 
regeneration. Before leaving the subject, however, 
it seems necessary to refer to the ceremony of con¬ 
firmation. 

This ceremony appears to be a relic,—the fossil 
remains of the apostolic custom of laying their 
hands upon the disciples when the Holy Spirit was 
imparted. In the ancient church it was connected 
with baptism and was regarded as a part of this rite. 
This connection remains in the Greek church. In 
the Roman church, children are expected to be con¬ 
firmed at the age of seven years. Among others 
who practice it, it may take place at any time after 
the candidate has come to years of accountability. 
The precise relation which it sustains to regenera¬ 
tion in the minds of those who practice it is hard 
to define. 

The scriptural basis, if there be one, for the 
doctrine of ritual regeneration, is found chiefly in 
three passages:—John iii: 5, “ Except a man be 
born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into 
the kingdom of God.” Tit. iii: 5,—“ He saved us 
by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the 
Holy Ghost,” and Eph. v : 26, “ That he might 


RITUA L RE GENERA TION. 


55 


sanctify and cleanse it”—the church, “with the 
washing of water by the word.” Of course, other 
scriptures are regarded as corroborative of these ; 
and the analogy, or the supposed identity of the 
Jewish and Christian systems has done service in 
the same direction. But these passages are to this 
system, what the pillars of the temple of Dagon 
which Samson took hold of, were to that edifice; 
if they are taken away the system is overthrown. 
The simple and only question in regard to them is, 
do they refer to baptism ? If this be admitted the 
argument is given to the ritualists. If it be proved, 
they have a citadel that is impregnable to all that 
their opponents can bring against them. 

In the plan adopted for these Essays this does 
not seem the best place to introduce an exegesis of 
these texts; but one will be attempted by and by, 
and it is confidently believed that it can be shown 
that there is in them no reference whatever to bap¬ 
tism ; and that they in no way support what is be¬ 
lieved to be an unscriptural and pernicious error. 

If now we glance backward over the path which 
we have been traveling, we can hardly fail to be im¬ 
pressed with the fact that regeneration, considered 
as a change of character and life, wrought by the 
word and Spirit of God, is comparatively a new doc¬ 
trine in the written theology of Christendom. That 
it has always been believed in, and taught by some 
of God’s children, we need not doubt, but we must 
believe that until a little more than one hundred 


56 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


years ago, those who received and taught it, were 
almost without exception found among the perse¬ 
cuted and trodden down people who seldom wrote 
aud whose few writings were diligently destroyed 
and then misrepresented, so that we know almost 
nothing of them ; or else it was taught in a way 
to make it seem more like the growth of the Chris¬ 
tian principle and feeling in the heart than a radi¬ 
cal change wrought by God and originating a new 
life in the soul. Much in this way the mystics of 
the Roman church received it, and the Reformers 
must have held it so, or they would have been 
compelled to abandon the idea of regeneration by 
baptism. 

In the great awakening in Old and New England 
under Whitfield, Wesley, and others, the doctrine of 
the new birth as an ascertainable change, became 
prominent in Christian theology, and since, has 
never lost its place there. W~e may hope and be¬ 
lieve that it never will lose it; but will, with all 
gospel truth, become more and more free from sur¬ 
rounding and beclouding error, and shine ever more 
clearly and brightly until the gospel day is past and 
the last child of God is brought home to his Fa¬ 
ther’s house. 


“ Not all the outward forms on earth, 
Nor rites which God has given, 

Nor will of man, nor blood, nor birth. 
Can raise a soul to heaven. 


RITUAL REGENERATION, 


57 


w The sovereign will of God alone 
Creates us heirs of grace; 

Born in the image of his Son, 

A new peculiar race. 


“ The Spirit, like some heavenly wind, 
Blows on the sons of flesh, 
New-models all the carnal mind, 

And forms the man afresh.” 


Watts. 


IV. 


REGENERATION NOT A MIRACLE. 

“ And God said, let us make man in our image after our 
likeness.” Gen. i, 26. 

What is a miracle ? “ Webster’s definition is,— 
A wonder, or wonderful thing ; a prodigy.—2, In 
theology, an event or effect contrary to the estab¬ 
lished constitution and course of things, or a devia¬ 
tion from the known laws of nature ; a supernatural 
event.” The Encyclopedia of Keligious Knowledge 
says,—“ A miracle, in a popular sense, is a prodigy, 
or an extraordinary event, which surprises us by its 
novelty. In a more accurate and philosophic sense, 
( a miracle is a work effected in a manner unusual, 
or different from the common and regular method 
of providence, by the power of God himself, for the 
proof of some particular message, or in attestation 
of the authority of some particular divine messen¬ 
ger.’” Dr. Bushnell, in “ Nature and the Super¬ 
natural,” says of a miracle, “ It is a supernatural act, 
an act, that is, which operates on the chain of cause 
and effect in nature, from without the chain, pro¬ 
ducing in the sphere of the senses, some event 
which moves our wonder, and evinces the presence 
of more than human power.” 


REGENERATION NOT A MIRACLE. 


59 


Now, according to these definitions, regenera¬ 
tion cannot be properly called a miracle, because,— 

1. However wonderful the change may seem to one 
who is it’s subject, or to others who observe its effects, 
and however evidently it may appear to be the work 
of God, it is, yet, not so “ within the sphere of the 
senses,” as to be properly a sign to unbelievers, or a 
sanction of any message or messenger of God. 

We must not think of all the wonderful works 
of God as miracles. As I look out of my window 
this morning, I see that the buds on the trees are 
swelling, and the grass is springing, and the early 
flowers are opening to greet the returning spring. 
Now, there is not one of these things, nor of a thou¬ 
sand others around me, but is a wonderful thing, 
and most evidently a work of God, but they are 
not miracles; they are not novel; they are not es¬ 
pecially for signs; and they are within the chain of 
cause and effect which God has established in the 
world. And this leads to the remark,— 

2. That regeneration is not a miracle because it 
is a change wrought within the chain of cause and 
effect existing in a man’s nature ; and not a change 
wrought upon the man from without that chain. 
In other words,— 

Regeneration is a change contemplated and pro¬ 
vided for in the moral constitution of man. 

When, in the process of creation, God said,— 
“ Let us make man in our image,” it is evident that 
he intended to make a noble creature ;—a creature 


60 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


very different from anything made before. What 
did he make ? What sort of creature is man ? How 
does he bear the image of God ? 

Perhaps it will be said,—man does not bear the 
image of God now ; that should not be taken into 
the account in estimating man; he lost the image 
of God when he fell. But did he ? Then why did 
God say to Noah, many centuries after the fall,— 
“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his 
blood be shed: for in the image of God made he 
man ? ” Would he have used such language if his 
image had been long since obliterated ? Assuredly 
not. The meaning is,—“you may slay with im¬ 
punity and without guilt, any animal that I have 
made, as your need may require, but the life of man 
is sacred, because he bears the image of his Creator ; 
and every murderer must be put to death ; I re¬ 
quire it.” 

The idea that God’s image in man consisted in 
holiness, and that he lost it in the fall, is perhaps a 
natural mistake; but it is, certainly, a mistake ; 
because Adam and his wife were not, in any proper 
sense of the term, holy. They were upright, inno¬ 
cent,—nothing more. Holiness m any creature im¬ 
plies one of two things ;—either sanctification, con¬ 
secration, devotion to God and his service ; or such 
a state of mind and heart as harmonizes with God, 
and necessitates the putting forth of all the forces 
of the being on the side of what is good and right 
and true. Now, Adam and Eve knew enough of 


REGENERATION NOT A MIRACLE. 


61 


God, so that, had they been holy, whatever force of 
character they possessed would have been exercised 
in favor of God and against his traducer and enemy. 
They would have clung so strongly to him in love 
and trust that the universe would never have wit¬ 
nessed the sad, the pitiful spectacle of their turning 
away from him at the first temptation that assailed 
them. Eve gave up God for an apple,—Adam gave 
up God for his wife. People talk very loosely when 
they speak of holiness as merely the absence of sin. 

Adam and his wife were made,—in the expres¬ 
sive metaphor of the scriptures,—“upright,”—just 
that. They stood squarely upon their own feet, and 
possessed the power of choosing whether they would 
cling to God and his service, or go after Satan and 
sin. Trial was necessary to develop them, and show 
their characters. It came,—and they fell. In their 
first sin they lost their uprightness ; and, from the 
hour of their sin, they leaned heavily away from God 
and holiness and toward selfish and sinful indul¬ 
gence. This leaning toward evil their children have 
inherited ; and this constitutes depravity. 

Perhaps some reader is saying just now —“ Why 
did God make man so that he could fall so easily, 
and then expose him to temptation ? He knew that 
he would fall; why did he not guard him so that 
he could not ? ” But why not ask why God made 
man at all ? This is the better question. When 
man was made it was not possible for God himself 
to hinder him from exercising his power of choosing 


62 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


evil instead of good, if it pleased him to choose 
thus. Does this startle you ? Does it seem too 
bold an assertion ? It certainly is reverently 
spoken. In God’s infinitely wise plan of creation, 
it pleased him, when he had made all the lower 
animals, and fully prepared the earth, to make a 
being who might be his Vicegerent,—a ruler under 
himself, upon the earth. It pleased him that this 
being should be, as an animal, the perfected ideal of 
animal life ;—a microcosm :—a creature in whom 
all the lower creatures should have at once their 
representative and their head. It pleased him also 
that this being should be a spirit, an intelligence, a 
creature of an independent, self-centered will, and 
so, belong to the realm of intelligences, of moral 
agents, of beings governed, not by natural laws, but 
by a revelation of his will. Because I am a man, 

“ I hold a middle rank *twixt heaven and earth ; 

On the last verge of mortal being stand, 

Close to the realms where angels have their birth, 

Just on the boundaries of the spirit-land ! 

The chain of being is complete in me ; 

In me is matter’s last gradation lost 
And the next step is spirit—deity 1” 

Now, just because man is in the realm of spirits, 
intelligences, powers, because he is a moral agent, 
he must in the nature of things be left free from 
outward restraint, to choose for himself whether he 
would obey God’s will or rebel against him. 


REGENERATION NOT A MIRACLE. 


63 


No doubt God might have made a very perfectly 
developed animal, a sort of superior monkey—such 
as some men seem to dream that they are, and have 
given him no power to sin ;—held him bound as he 
holds the brute creation by the laws of nature and 
instinct; but, between such a creature and man 
there would have been “a great gulf fixed,” an ut¬ 
terly impassable abyss. No ! depend upon it, we 
could not have the glorious position and possibilities 
of manhood, without its probation and its possibili¬ 
ties of fall and ruin. 

But we will not forget that it is the regeneration 
of man, and his establishment in obedience and 
holiness, in which we are especially interested now. 
Nor will we forget that God has avowedly taken the 
initiative in this matter, and of his own motion is 
seeking to renew in righteousness and true holiness, 
his fallen, lost creature. Can this be done ? Can 
man be redeemed from sin, if he could not be kept 
from sin ? If God can come in, and act with coer¬ 
cive power without reference to the human will 
upon any heart, and change that heart as one is 
changed in regeneration ; then why could he not 
have exerted the same sovereign coercive power in 
keeping man from sin, or in saving all sinners as 
well as one ? There can be but one answer to this 
question. The exercise of coercive power upon a 
single human heart would be an abandonment of 
the principle of moral government and can never 
take place—never has taken place, notwithstanding 


64 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


so many Christians talk about being forced into the 
kingdom of God, and think that there are passages 
in the scriptures which fully warrant them in speak¬ 
ing so. Such passages ought to be, and can be in¬ 
terpreted so as not to dishonor God or conflict with 
the principles of his moral government, and such 
experiences only show what is thought to be the 
proper form of expressing them. 

It would seem that there should be no need to 
argue such a point as this. It ought to be self-evi¬ 
dent to all that God must work, in regenerating a 
man, just as much in harmony with the principles 
of man’s nature, and of his own moral government, 
as he works in harmony with natural laws in the 
procreation of a life of plant or animal. The care¬ 
ful and reverent student of God’s works can hardly 
fail to find everywhere a law of adaptation which 
nicely adjusts means to ends, and part to its fellow 
part. 

If, now, we turn to the record of the fall and 
study it carefully we shall not fail to see that al¬ 
though Eve, our mother, was very easily led astray, 
she seems to have yielded to temptation almost as 
easily as her sinful children have, yet when the 
tempter came to her,—and he was the arch-tempter, 
—mightiest of evil powers,—he was obliged to ap¬ 
proach her covertly, with smooth and honied words 
of seeming truth, and artfully awaken appetite, and 
curiosity, and pride, before he could move her to his 
purpose. Weak woman that she was, while her will 


REGENERATION NOT A MIRACLE. 


65 


kept the citadel of her heart, Satan had not power 
enough to enter it. He must corrupt the garrison, 
and persuade it to open the gates. Had she resisted 
the tempter, had she turned to her God in love and 
clinging trust, then she would have begun to be 
holy indeed, and the fortress of her soul would have 
been stronger than before the attack. Instead of 
this, she yielded to Satan, and as a consequence 
Satan now holds the gates of all unredeemed souls. 
In Bunyan’s language, “ Diabolus keeps the town of 
Mansoul.” 

And yet, although weakened, the fortress is not 
destroyed ; and if it can be regained for God, holi¬ 
ness and salvation are yet possible in any and every 
case. Man still bears the image of his God, in that 
he is capable of independent moral action, and no 
being in the universe can rule his soul for a single 
moment without the consent of his will. To regain 
the fortress,—to win back the soul to allegiance 
to God, this is the object sought and gained in re¬ 
generation. 

Observe, now, God’s method in this work. He 
does not steal upon the soul in an unguarded mo¬ 
ment, and take possession of it; he does not throw 
upon it an overpowering spiritual influence, and 
crush out opposition ; but he does by the preaching 
of the gospel seek to awaken the sinner to a sense of 
his danger and need, and then points him to the 
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 
In connection with this, he sends the Holy Spirit,— 


66 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


the blessed wind—breath—of heaven to blow away 
from the poor stupified soul the mephitic gases by 
which it is choked, and breathe into it a breath of 
the pure reviving air of truth; and then says 
‘•'choose you this day whom you will serve.” In¬ 
stead of coercing the soul, Jesus stands at the door 
and knocks, and asks admittance. He himself 
says,—“Behold I stand at the door and knock; if 
any man hear my voice and open the door, I will 
come in and sup with him and he with me.” But 
often he calls and knocks in vain ;—stands and 
knocks “ until his head is wet with the dew and his 
locks with the drops of the night,” and is rejected 
at last. “ He comes unto his own and his own re¬ 
ceive him not.” But, there are some who do re¬ 
ceive him,—and such receive power to become the 
sons of God. As soon as he is admitted the same 
will-power which has been exerted against him is 
put forth for him ; the servant of sin becomes the 
servant of God ; the retainer of Satan becomes a 
soldier of Immanuel, and henceforth fights the good 
fight of faith. 

Surely, in all this there is no miracle ! So far 
as we can see, God’s work upon the man is only 
such a work as one intelligence may exert upon 
another, without for a moment suspending or over¬ 
bearing the natural laws of the soul. 

But there are other aspects of the question which 
we must consider. 

Man bears the image of God,—bears it now,—in 


REGENERATION NOT A MIRACLE. 


67 


this, that lie is one of the judges of the universe. 
Every man, be he high or low in the scale of hu¬ 
manity, possesses a moral sense which enables him, 
nay, requires him to judge of the right and wrong, 
the good and evil, of all things that have moral 
character, which come before him. He must judge. 
He may not utter his opinions, he may be scarcely 
conscious that he forms any; his opinions may he 
unsettled, may be biased, may be wholly wrong and 
worthless ; yet, still, he must judge, and must bear 
the responsibility of the right or wrong of his judg¬ 
ments. 

By the way, is it not strange that so many intel¬ 
ligent men find it hard to see a clear line of demar¬ 
cation between mankind and the brutes ? Of 
course, there are many very brutal men ;—and there 
are brutes that exhibit, now and then, an intelligence 
almost human ; but between the extremes on either 
hand, even when they most closely approach each 
other, there is an immeasurable distance. Every 
man not idiotic or lunatic, possesses a moral sense, 
and a likeness to his God, of which the animals 
show no trace. Even if we forget the moral sense, 
and only look at human reason, we shall see that 
where it rises into judgment, it is a thing totally 
different from the sort of instinctive reason we see 
in animals. 

When one thinks of the powers that men are 
exhibiting, it becomes, sometimes, an exciting, and 
a proud thing, even to reflect that one is a man. 


68 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


Think of Agassiz grasping firmly in his mind 
the facts, and through them the principles of 
almost universal nature.; tracing, analyzing, and 
classifying such facts and principles, until he seems 
almost to hold the universe in his hand; think of 
Newton reaching up into the heavens and grasping 
the key that unlocked the mysteries of universal 
motion; think of Le Verrier, working out in his 
closet the problem that, in its result, demonstrated 
the existence and position of a planet which mortal 
eyes had never yet seen; think of Franklin and 
Morse lassoing the lightning and breaking it in to 
be their servant and run on their errands ; think of 
Stevenson creating an iron horse, filling its bowels 
with fire and its lungs with steam, harnessing it to his 
chariot, and driving it with more than the speed of 
the wind ; and suppress if you can a feeling of deep re¬ 
spect, of reverence for human nature, and exultation 
in the thought,—I too am a man ! 0, if man had 

not sold his birthright and debased and emasculated 
his powers by sin, what glorious possibilities there 
would have been in him ! Even now he seems almost 
like a deputy creator working miracles constantly. 

But when we think of human nature in its moral 
aspects, and see how it is everywhere prostituted 
to evil, our enthusiasm is repressed, and we turn 
sadly away from the spectacle that rises before us. 

Regeneration is God’s remedy for sin. Let us 
rejoice that there is a remedy,—and let us rever¬ 
ently study it, and promote it as we can. 


REGENERATION NOT A MIRACLE. 


69 


In working this change in any soul, it pleases 
God to do what he does in response to earnest en¬ 
treaty. He will have men come to him for help. 
Before he pardons sin, he will have shiners feel their 
guilt and danger. To make them feel it, he awak¬ 
ens their moral sense, and then before it, as before 
a judgment seat, he arraigns their heart and life. 
Will it be going too far to say that the spirit acts as 
God’s attorney, explaining and applying the law, 
and aiding to call forward the testimony ? We know 
that it is a part of his office to “convince of sin.” 
We believe that it is a part of his work to awaken 
drowsy consciences and to plead God’s cause before 
them. Such a trial, in such a case, can result only 
in one way. The sinner is convicted, condemned 
by his own judgment, and knows that his only hope 
is in flying to Christ for pardon. If he does this 
he will be pardoned and accepted in Christ. If he 
does not do it, “ he is condemned already,” by his 
own heart, and by God who is “ greater than his 
heart, and knoweth all things.” 

But it may be said that all this is irrelevant to 
our subject; that awakening and conviction are not 
regeneration and no part of it ; and this because, 
as has been admitted, one may be awakened and 
convicted, and yet never be regenerated. CgTainly 
it is not claimed that all who are convicted of sin 
are truly born of God; but in the case of one who 
does come to Jesus, who is regenerated, is not the 
awakening and convicting a part of the work which 


70 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


God does in bringing him, in drawing him to Jesus. 
If regeneration is a quickening of one dead, must 
not the awakening be a part of the quickening ? If 
it be a conversion, or turning to the Lord, that 
which leads one to convert or turn is not to be over¬ 
looked as a part of the work wrought. Look at it 
as we will, God is the Alpha as well as the Omega 
of the work wrought in saving a soul; and none of 
us can say that the work of one moment is 
more essential or important than that of any other. 

The truth is, most of us have always been accus¬ 
tomed to think of regeneration as the work of an 
instant, and a sort of miracle; and the assertion 
that God usually takes time and uses means in 
bringing it about is new, and possibly seems in some 
way to detract from God’s glory. Let us hope that 
we may get rid of such fears, and come to see that 
not only is the growth of a tree quite as much the 
work of God as the thunder-stroke that destroys it, 
but that regeneration is quite as much the work of 
God when he uses his word, his children and his 
spirit in bringing it about, as it could be if wrought 
in any other manner. 

But again, man bears the image of God, and is 
constitutionally adapted to receive divine and re¬ 
generating influences because when God made him, 
he breathed into him the breath—pneuma—spirit of 
life . This gave man a spiritual nature so related to 
that of his Creator, that communion was possible 
between them. This it is that renders it possible 


REGENERATION NOT A MIRACLE. 


71 


now for the Holy Spirit to come and abide in us, 
and make our bodies his temple. It will need no 
miracle, it will be no miracle when he does come ; 
it will be only the carrying out of the original plan 
of the Creator ; a plan interrupted by man’s sin, but 
still possible when the sinner repents, and opens his 
heart to the Heavenly Guest. 

This more than everything else is the crowning 
glory of human nature. Yet how little the mass of 
mankind think of this ! how little they care for it ! 
They are like Bunvan’s “ man with the muck-rake,” 
ever bent over with their faces toward the earth so 
that they cannot see the crown that is offered them, 
that is held within their reach. They toil and strive 
for lucre—lucre that often comes to them polluted, 
and that pollutes their souls, and neglect the no¬ 
blest, truest riches. They are animals deeply con¬ 
scious of animal wants and desires, and mainly 
occupied in ministering to them. 

But the strangest, saddest thing is, that men are 
found who, with great zeal, ability, and persever¬ 
ance, have set themselves to the task of proving 
themselves animals. Is this because “ they do not 
like to retain God in their knowledge ? ” If it is a 
shame to a man to indulge and pamper the animal 
side of his nature until it becomes his master, and 
he sinks as nearly as possible to the level of the 
brutes, it surely is a double shame for one in pos¬ 
session of exalted reason to occupy it in trying to 
prove himself a brute. 


72 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


The coming of the Holy Spirit to abide in a soul 
is the completion of the work of regeneration, and 
the sealing of God’s covenant with it. It can only 
take place when one has been convicted and has 
sought and found pardon in Christ, and has become 
truly submissive and obedient to God’s will. Then 
in answer to believing prayer he will breathe him¬ 
self in upon the human spirit, to hold and keep it 
submissive, loving, and obedient, by his impercepti¬ 
ble but effective presence. 

Such an in-breathing—inspiration—is not pos¬ 
session. He, in whose heart the Spirit abides, does 
not surrender, in any degree, his own individuality, 
does not lose or sink one element of a true and 
proper manhood. We must believe that even the 
men who were moved by the Holy Ghost to write 
the Holy Scriptures, did not in the least lose their 
own proper individuality. Each man of them gave 
utterance to his thoughts and emotions in his own 
way, and was only conscious, we may suppose, of 
the superintendence of the spirit, and that he illu¬ 
minated his mind and stimulated and increased all 
his powers. The style of the different writers was 
not at all the same ; each one exhibits traces ofhis 
mental training and habits, just as uninspired men 
do. Paul, and Peter, and John, are just as distinc¬ 
tively Paul, and Peter, and John in their writings, 
as they were in the freest and most unrestrained in¬ 
tercourse with familiar friends. The spirit in them, 
—and in every one who receives him—was like the 


REGENERATION NOT A MIRACLE. 


73 


fire in the bush that Moses saw. “ The bush was 
not burned.” We must believe that every little twig 
and leaflet of it remained unscorched. So it is when 
the Holy Spirit comes to abide in a soul,—none of 
the soul’s powers, perhaps we may say none of its 
idiosyncrasies, are changed, only as they are regu¬ 
lated and ennobled and purified. 

This, we see at once, is a very different thing 
from what modern spiritists claim for their mediums. 
That if it is more than pretence and delusion, is pos¬ 
session, not inspiration. The theory is understood 
to be that, while the will of the medium and the 
faculties of his soul and body lie passive, a disem¬ 
bodied spirit comes in and takes possession of both 
physical and mental organs and uses them at its 
will. Now, inasmuch as it is an honor, and a high 
one, to a man that he has an independent will and 
is a responsible free-agent under God, it is a dis¬ 
honor and a shame to him to become the passive 
tool of any being, be that being man, demon, or 
angel. If a good and wise man comes to me, and 
by communicating his own true and beautiful 
thoughts, and holy emotions, stimulates and feeds 
my mind and heart, I am grateful to him : if God 
sees fit to permit a good and wise spirit from “the 
better land ” to do this, I am grateful and gladly 
accept his ministry. But if the noblest man on 
earth or an archangel from the highest heaven, 
were to ask me to become his “ medium,”—to sink, 
for the time, my own personality, and permit him 



74 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


to use my bodily and mental powers at his will, I 
would feel that my manhood was insulted by the re¬ 
quest, and would cry, indignantly, no,—a thousand 
times, no ! 

But the climax of insane folly is reached when 
a man follows “the spirits” in religious things. 
Even if we admit that the “communications” are 
from spirits, it is not possible to know whether the 
spirits are good or bad, true or false. Surely men 
“love darkness rather than light.” 

Inspiration by the Holy Spirit is not at all in 
this line. God never asks his intelligent creatures 
to stultify and make fools of themselves in his ser¬ 
vice. Indeed it may be truly said that one’s man¬ 
hood can never be a completed, rounded-out, de¬ 
veloped thing, until the Spirit does come and breathe 
himself in upon the willing, welcoming soul. 

" ABIDE IN ME.” 

“ That mystic word of thine, O, sovereign Lord, 

Is all too pure, too high, too deep for me ; 

Weary with striving, and with longing faint, 

I breathe it back again in prayer to thee. 

Abide in me—o’ersliadow by thy love 

Each half-formed purpose, and dark thought of sin, 

Quench ere it rise each selfish, low desire, 

And keep my soul as thine calm and divine. 

As some rare perfume in a vase of clay 
Pervades it with a fragrance not its own— 

So, when thou dwellest in a human soul. 

All heaven’s own sweetness seems around it thrown. 


REGENERATION NOT A MIRACLE. 


75 


The soul alone, like a neglected harp, 

Grows out of tune, and needs that Hand divine. 
Dwell thou within it, tune and touch the chords 
Till every note and string shall answer thine. 
Abide in me :—there have been moments pure 
When I have seen thy face and felt thy power ; 
Then evil lost its grasp, and passion hushed— 
Owned the divine enchantment of the hour. 
These were but seasons beautiful and rare; 
Abide in me —and they shall ever be ; 

I pray thee now fulfill my earnest prayer. 

Come and abide in me and I in thee.” 


V. 


IS RE GENERA TIONINSTANTANEO US ? 

“ Being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incor¬ 
ruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for¬ 
ever.” I Pet. i, 23. 

Among the Christian ministers, indeed, among 
Christians generally with whom the writer is 
acquainted, there are, probably, very few who if 
asked the question—Is regeneration an instantan¬ 
eous change ?—would not answer unhesitatingly and 
undoubtingly, yes. Most of them would be likely 
to feel surprise that the question should be asked. 
To them it seems a self-evident truth that it is so, 
and they may be inclined to feel a trifle impatient 
at the blindness or stupidity that asks the question. 
It is believed that some may feel that the idea of 
instantaneousness is almost vital to the doctrine of 
regeneration itself. And yet the question must be 
asked, seriously and earnestly asked. 

It is well, perhaps, that we should bear in mind, 
that in these latter days any dogma or theory, 
whether of science or religion, needs some better 
foundation than the fact that it has been widely and 
long believed. In the waking up of mind that 


IS REGENERATION INSTANTANEOUS ? 77 

marks our time, the dust of ages is not sacred. 
And while old systems of error and kingdoms of 
wrong are crumbling and tumbling down, many 
things that are sacred, and many more that have 
seemed so, may be rudely shaken. But let us not 
fear. We need not, Uzzah-like, attempt to steady 
the ark of God. “The foundation of God standeth 
sure,” and “ the things that cannot be shaken will 
remain.” The sun of righteousness is rising in the 
W’orld’s sky. And as the light grows clearer it may 
well be that many things may not look to us as they 
have done in the twilight. But we will not fear on 
that account;—especially, we need not, because 
some merely incidental, and comparatively unimpor¬ 
tant belief does not bear the light. It is probably 
true that the peculiar lisp with which the fathers 
pronounced the shibboleths of creed may pass away 
and be forgotten, and neither the church nor the 
world be any the worse for it. In the fires of hon¬ 
est investigation we may be sure that only the hay, 
wood and stubble will be burned ; the gold and sil¬ 
ver will be purified. 

Bnt, after all, it would probably surprise many 
who very confidently believe in instantaneous regen¬ 
eration, to learn as they would, were they to ear¬ 
nestly study the subject, how few of the standard, 
or in any way eminent writers on regeneration have 
contended for its instantaneousness. A very few 
assert it, a few others seemed to take it for granted, 
but of those whose works the writer has had access 


78 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


to, only Dr. Dwight undertakes to argue the question. 
His argument which includes all that can be said on 
that side of the question, it is believed, may be 
briefly, but fairly summed up as follows : 

1. Every moral actor must be either sinful or 
holy, a child of God or a child of the Wicked One, 
at any or every point of time in his life. There can 
be no neutral ground between sin and holiness ; 
and therefore, when one is changed from sin to holi¬ 
ness there must be a specific point of time when the 
change takes place. 

2. The figurative expressions used in the scrip¬ 
tures to indicate regeneration imply instantaneous¬ 
ness. 

3. The instances of sudden conversion recorded 
in the New Testament tend to support the same idea. 

Let us now try to examine by the best light we 
have these supposed arguments ;—and first, what 
is called 


THE NATURE OF THE CASE. 

There is, beyond dispute, much seeming force 
in the idea that there can be no neutral ground be¬ 
tween sin and holiness. The word of God does cer¬ 
tainly divide the human family into two great 
classes—the righteous and the wicked. Christ says, 
“he that is not for me is against me.” lie evidently 
does not want any neutrals, any “peace men,” to 
meddle in the war which he is waging with sin and 
wrong. 


IS REGENERATION INTTANTANEOUSf 79 


Thus much must he in candor, and is in all wil¬ 
lingness conceded. But does this prove as much as 
is claimed for it ? If so does it not prove too much? 
If what is no doubt true if taken in a general way 
of mankind, is strictly true of each individual man, 
then how can there be any such thing as an intelli¬ 
gent, voluntary seeking for God or coming to Christ? 
If each and every man is actually leaning with all 
the force of his will toward sin, and away from God 
until the instant of his full and complete regenera¬ 
tion, then how can the preaching of the gospel to 
sinners be any thing else but mockery and sham¬ 
ming. The truth is, instantaneous regeneration is 
miraculous regeneration, and the idea that God uses 
means, and works in harmony with the laws of man’s 
being to bring it about, is a delusion. There have 
been many in past days, there are some now, no 
doubt, who boldly and unhesitatingly have taken the 
ground that it was foolish and wrong to preach the 
gospel to the unregenerate. Were they right ? It 
would certainly appear so, if, under the preaching 
of the gospel, and the drawings of the Father, and 
the conviction and persuasion of the spirit, an unre¬ 
generate man may not be led to repent and submit 
to God, and pray for pardon. Is it true that no one 
can “flee from the wrath to come” and “'come to 
Jesus,” and “ call upon the name of the Lord,” until 
he is already saved ? Must we go back to the 
hyper-Calvinistic and Antinomian doctrine, and 
cease to preach that sinners may and should repent, 


80 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


and cease to make efforts to save men ? Consist¬ 
ency and common honesty would seem to require 
this, if regeneration be miraculous and instanta¬ 
neous. 

But some one will say, Paul said to the Ephe¬ 
sians, “ You hath he quickened who were dead in 
trespasses and sins.” If they, and other sinners, are 
dead how can they do anything toward their salva¬ 
tion until they are quickened or made alive ? And 
is not that, regeneration the very beginning of the 
new life ? 

In reply we must ask in turn, how were the 
Ephesians, how are unregenerate sinners dead? 
Was it, is it in any other way than that their sins 
had separated them from God? God is the true 
life of the soul. One separated from him is dead. 
But it does not follow that such a one is incapable 
of moral action ; nor that he may nut under gospel 
and divine infleunces turn toward God and prayer¬ 
fully seek him before he is truly made alive by the 
indwelling spirit. There is much loose talking and 
thinking about “ moral death.” There can hardly 
be any such thing short of the annihilation of the 
soul. Moral life is not spiritual life, nor holiness. 
Erom all that appears, the deepest dyed, and most 
unrepentant sinner, on earth or in hell, is morally 
alive and responsible. 

But if we were to admit that sinful men are dead 
in such a sense as precludes the idea of any action 
on their part toward God and Christ until they have 


IS REGENERATION INSTANTANEOUS? 81 


been quickened, even then, the idea of an instan¬ 
taneous quickening is not a necessary one. Their 
reviving is likely to be more like that of the dry 
bones in Ezekiel’s A r alley of vision. There was first 
a prophesying, then a shaking, then bone came to 
its fellow bone, then flesh covered them, and then 
at the last by prophesying still, the wind—the spirit 
came and they lived. 

But it may be said, must it not be, necessarily, 
in the nature of the case true, that the very begin¬ 
ning of the new life, is instantaneous ? How can 
one think of such a change without a transition 
point ? 

Well how is it with other beginnings ? For in¬ 
stance, day begins—does it begin at any instant ? 
There is every morning a transition from darkness 
to light, just as there is in the soul that comes to 
Jesus—but is there a point of transition ? If it be 
said there is a moment when the sun rises, the ob¬ 
vious reply is that even the sunrise is not instanta¬ 
neous, but there is a very perceptible lapse of time 
while he is coming above the horizon. 

Again, every life of plant or animal begins ; 
—but who can point to the instant of begin¬ 
ning in either ? A seed is sown, it is warmed by 
the sun and watered by the rain, and after a time, 
there is a visible life unfolded ; but if you could have 
watched it with a microscope during every moment 
of its germination, you would hardly have discov¬ 
ered an instant of beginning. An animal ovum is 
4* 


82 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


impregnated and under favoring circumstances there 
is, by and by, the throbbing of a new heart—a new 
life has begun, but could you have watched, you 
should have found the point of beginning as hard to 
findasinthe life of the plant. The truth is, that 
while beginnings are everywhere around us, instants 
of beginning exist rather in philosophy, or better 
perhaps in imagination, than in observable fact. 

Closely connected with the idea of instantaneous¬ 
ness in the new birth, is the related thought that 
that change is somehow the implantation of a sort 
of divine germ, or life principle in the soul, which 
really has little or nothing to do with the working 
of the mind or heart of the one who has received it, 
so that it may lie dormant for a longer or shorter 
time, and work no change in the current every day 
life, and that even after years have passed in which 
some evidence has been given of a change of charac¬ 
ter, one may so backslide as to be even more un¬ 
godly than before the change, and yet the divine 
principle remain in him and be a ground of hope of 
final salvation. 

Now it would seem that the mere statement of 
this idea should be its sufficient refutation. Cer¬ 
tainly any one who has carefully studied the New 
Testament knows that the idea of the new birth is 
always connected with the idea of a new and holy 
life. The one who is born of God overcomes the 
world. They who are led by the Spirit of God are 
the only ones recognized as the sons of God. “He 



IS REGENERATION INSTANTANEOUS ? 83 


who is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed 
remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is 
horn of God.” Let no one throw over this the 
antinomian gloss, that because one is born of God, 
he may do what he please and it is not sinful. If 
inclined to do so, let him read Rom. vi : 16, 
“ Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves 
servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye 
obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience 
unto righteousness ?” Always and everywhere the 
sinner will earn death as his wages ; and sinners in 
Zion have as much reason to fear as others. 

But perhaps some one will reply, Oy it is not 
that which is born of God that sins, but the old 
man, the sinful nature, what Paul calls the flesh. 
This double nature theory used to be very frequently 
brought forward as a shelter under which the hope 
of a consciously sinful and sinning man might 
hide. Paul was a good man, and Paul was 
“ carnal, sold under sin.” He found “a law in 
his members, bringing him into captivity to the 
law of sin.” 

Some years ago, the writer was a little surprised 
to hear an old man, who was notoriously, in his 
neighborhood, a very reprobate, say, “I think I 
shall be saved, I think I am a Christian, because, 
my experience is so much like Paul’s. ‘When I 
would do good evil is present with me.’ ” His neigh¬ 
bors had no doubt that evil was present with him, 
but whether he was like Paul was quite another 


84 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


question. So it may be with many another whose 
hope is being nursed in the same way. 

0, let us not deceive ourselves in this way. “ Out 
of the heart are the issues of life.” “ A good man 
out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth 
good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure 
bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you 
that for every idle word that men shall speak they 
shall give account in the day of judgment; for by 
thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words 
thou shalt be condemned.” Matt, xii, 35-37. “Be 
not deceived, God is not mocked ; for whatsoever a 
man soweth that shall he also reap. For he that 
soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corrup¬ 
tion ; but ho that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the 
Spirit reap life everlasting.” Gal. vi, 7, 8. It may 
be that you are deceived in thinking that those pas¬ 
sages describe Paul’s experience at the time he wrote 
them. It may be that instead, he is giving the 
experience of one who is striving to keep the law 
of God without the help of the Holy Spirit; and 
that in the next chapter he gives the experience 
of one who is so born of the Spirit as to be truly 
a son of God. There is a vast difference between 
the two. 

There is one thing more that is said sometimes, 
and said as though it were unanswerable. “ What 
will become of those who die while this work of re¬ 
generation is going on ? They are not exactly 
impenitent sinners, and they are not, according to 




IS REGENERATION INSTANTANEOUS ? 85 


your theory, fully born of God, what will become of 
them ? ” 

The full and sufficient reply to this is, regenera¬ 
tion is the work of him in whose hand our breath 
is, and one part of his work is apt to harmonize 
with another. “He who has begun a good work 
in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.” 
One in whom he is working to will and to do of bis 
good pleasure, is not very likely to slip out of his 
hand until the work is done. 

And yet, one cannot carefully read the scrip¬ 
tures, without facing the fact, that there may be 
branches of the True Vine that do not bear fruit, 
and that will be cut off and burned ;—plants from 
seed falling on the rock, that will perish when the 
sun ariseth ;—that there may be some “ who were 
once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly 
gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 
and have tasted the good word of God, and the 
powers of the world to come,” who after all may so 
fall away that it is impossible to renew them unto 
repentance. There is—there can be—no safety 
short of Christ’s being formed within us by the Holy 
Spirit. Let us give diligence to make our calling 
and election sure. 

Passing now, to examine the figurative expres¬ 
sions used in the Hew Testament to designate the 
change we are considering, and to inquire if they 
help to prove its instantaneousness, it is proper to 
remark that the writer has seen but three of these i 


86 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


adduced for this purpose. These are The New 
Birth, The New Creation of the Soul, and Turning 
to God. Of these the most important because most 
used and most relied upon is, 

THE HEW BIRTH. 

In studying this phrase, we observe that the 
Greek word that is always used in the New Testa¬ 
ment where it appears, is some derivation of the 
verb gennao. This is defined by the lexicons as 
meaning to engender, to procreate, to beget, to pro¬ 
duce, more rarely, to bring forth. Now, engender¬ 
ing, begetting, birth, etc., each in its way, indicates 
the beginning of a life. So being born of God, be¬ 
ing born again, being begotten through the gospel, 
must indicate a new spiritual life,—a new course 
and habit of life, in one who is its subject. This 
with the related thought that by this change one 
enters into a relation to God like that of a son to a 
father, shows clearly why these terms are used. One 
cannot doubt that the purpose of their use is to im¬ 
press it upon us that those who have experienced 
this change are special objects of God’s care and 
love, and that they will—not ought to, but will— 
live a new, a godly life, a life radically and thor¬ 
oughly different from that which they have lived 
heretofore. 

This thought can hardly be too fully impressed 
upon our minds, can hardly be too often repeated in 
our thought. The Christian life,—the life resulting 




IS REGENERATION INSTANTANEOUS? 87 


from the New Birth, is no mysterious or miraculous 
something that may lie somewhere within us, im¬ 
perceptible, and unaffecting our daily lives; but is 
such a change in the life currents and motive forces 
of the soul as will produce a changed life, a godly 
life, a practically holy life. The holiness of the 
Christian is neither implied nor imputed, it is 
wrought in him by the Holy Spirit working in har¬ 
mony with the will renewed in love. 

But does being born of God imply an instantane¬ 
ous change ? Certainly not. Because, if the cen¬ 
tral idea of the word used by the inspired writers is 
looked for, it is generation, not birth, nor begetting, 
and generation is always and necessarily a work of 
time. Even if we admit that birth is the idea con¬ 
veyed, it must be said that a birth can never be in¬ 
stantaneous. It may occupy but little time, it may 
occupy much, it is never the work of an instant. 

If the idea of begetting is pressed, it need only 
be observed that, of the three places where the con¬ 
nection renders this the proper translation of the 
original, in two Paul speaks of himself as the parent. 
In 1 Cor. iv, 15, he says, ‘ ‘ I have begotten you 
through the gospel,”—and in Philemon 10th v., he 
speaks of Onesimus as one “whom,” he says, “I 
have begotten in my bonds.” The other passage is 
1 Peter i, 3. Here the apostle speaks of the disci¬ 
ples as “begotten again unto a lively hope by the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Surely 
one who finds instantaneousness of change indi- 


88 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


cated by these scriptures must have a lively imagi¬ 
nation. 

CREATED IK CHRIST JESUS. 

The idea of creation connects itself naturally 
with the development of the new life of a soul be¬ 
cause God is the author of it. No truth is more 
clearly taught in the Bible than that no one comes 
into that life of his own motion or by his own 
power. God in Christ is the author and finisher of 
our faith. It seems easy to forget, or at least, to 
lose in a measure, the sense of what we owe to our 
Heavenly Father. Hence such forms of expression 
as will help us remember, will fix in our minds the 
greatness of our debt. 

But does the idea of creation involve the idea of 
an instant of beginning ? Perhaps some of us used 
to think so. Perhaps we have imagined that when 
God created the heavens and the earth, he caused 
them to spring at once into existence, complete, 
finished as we see them now. Is it not safe to say, 
we know better now ! We can see now that the 
book of Genesis does not assert this. We know too 
that God has written a much fuller account of cre¬ 
ation with his own finger, than he gave to Moses, 
and laid it where Job desired that his words might 
be laid—“in the rock forever.” 

Not all the books of that history have as yet been 
opened, and we are able to read but imperfectly much 
that is opened, but enough has been read and that 


IS REGENERATION INSTANTANEOUS ? 89 


clearly, to show that the “ beginning ” is far back in 
the infinite past, and that the days of creation were 
periods of such vast duration that each seems almost 
like an eternity of itself. 

0 no, there is nothing in the idea of creation to 
suggest even suddenness. 

TURNING TO GOD. 

In regard to this it must be said that it is posi¬ 
tively surprising that any one, much less an acute 
theologian, should have thought that turning to God 
implied an instantaneous change. The phrase does 
not even suggest sudden or prompt action. When 
one who is walking in any path turns around and 
goes the other way, his turning implies thought, 
resolve and effort. He may turn quickly or slowly, 
but it is simply impossible that his turning shall be 
instantaneous. Besides, the turning of a sinner to 
God is not regeneration—is not God’s work at all— 
but only an act of the creature that attends, or coin¬ 
cides with God’s work. 

INSTANCES OF SUDDEN CONVERSION 

recorded in the Scriptures. Dr. Dwight brings for¬ 
ward as supporting the theory we are examining,— 
The three thousand who were added to the church 
on the day of Pentecost,—Paul,—The jailor at Phil¬ 
ippi,—Dionysius the Areopagite,— Damaris,—and 
Sergius Paulus. 

How, all these cases might be dismissed with a 


90 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


single word, because the question is not at all 
whether regeneration may sometimes be wrought 
very suddenly, but whether it is always wrought in 
an instant. Still, with some they have some 
weight as evidence in the case, and so demand a 
brief notice. 

1. The three thousand who were added to the 
church on the Day of Pentecost. 

Of these we are told in the scriptures just this 
and no more,—that under the preaching and other 
influences of that day a great multitude were awak¬ 
ened—convicted—pricked in the heart—and cried 
out to know what they should do; that Peter 
preached repentance and baptism to them ; that 
those who gladly received the word were baptized ; 
and the same day there were added unto them—that 
is. to the company of disciples—about three thou¬ 
sand souls. This appears to have been all done in 
one day, but there is to be clearly seen the usual 
process of change, awakening, conviction, inquiry, 
enlightenment, and acceptance of the gospel, and 
there is in the case no more proof that conversion— 
not to say regeneration—is the work of an instant, 
than there would have been if they had been under 
apostolic preaching, and under conviction for a year. 

2. Paul’s conversion.—In regard to Paul’s case 
we are told that when on the way to Damascus on an 
errand of persecution, he was suddenly stricken 
down by a divine manifestation ; that after conver¬ 
sation with the Lord Jesus, he was so far subdued 


IS REGENERATION INSTANTANEOUS ? 91 


as to ask for and obey the Lord’s directions ; that 
he went into the city and remained there three days 
without sight, and did neither eat nor drink,—the 
natural inference being that he was under such dis¬ 
tress of mind as destroyed his appetite; that he 
prayed; and that then Ananias came to him, ex¬ 
horted and instructed him, laid his hands on him—as 
was the custom in the church in communicating the 
Holy Spirit, and he received his sight and was bap¬ 
tized and filled with the Holy Ghost. How, there was 
in all this nothing essentially different from other 
cases of the New Birth, except the miraculous mani¬ 
festation which awakened him. The change was not 
even a remarkably sudden one. And, if it be 
claimed that he was fully changed in the highway 
under the light and the voice of the Lord Jesus, there 
is still no proof of an instant of change. There must 
have been a lapse of time while the conversation was 
going on, and his mind receiving the new truth. 

3. The Philippian Jailor.—Well, his case was 
very similar to Paul’s. He and his family were 
awakened, and we may say, convicted by a miracle ; 
—still, we must remember that he could hardly have 
been ignorant of the previous preaching of the apos¬ 
tles, and that their words in the prison had much 
to do with his conviction,—that Paul and Silas 
preached to them farther, and they believed, and 
were baptized. Now what is there here of an instant 
of change ? It was not the miracle so much as the 
preaching of the truth that led them to Christ, and 


92 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


of course time was necessary while they were hearing 
and believing. 

4. Dionysius and Damaris.—Now, who that 
reads the Bible does not know that every word that 
we are told about the conversion of these two is, 
that at the close of Paul’s preaching at Athens, 
when he ‘‘departed from among them, certain men 
clave unto him and believed, among whom were 
Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Da¬ 
maris, and others with them.” That is all. When 
Paul went away from Athens he left them believers, 
and no man can know how long they had been be¬ 
lievers, nor any thing about their conversion. It 
makes one indignant that a true Christian man, and 
an able theologian, should be so unpardonably care¬ 
less as to bring forward a proof case like this. 

5. That of Sergius Paulos is not much better. 
He was a Roman Magistrate in the island of Cyprus, 
who sent for Paul and Barnabas and desired to hear 
the word of God. Elymas the sorcerer withstood 
the apostles and sought to turn him from the faith. 
Elymas was struck with blindness ; and the deputy, 
when he saw what was done, believed, being aston¬ 
ished at the doctrine of the Lord. This is all we 
know of the man, and it is not even certain that he 
was ever truly and savingly regenerated. The 
phrase, “ believed being astonished,” suggests the 
thought that he may have been like some others who 
are spoken of as believing, who evidently were not 
deeply and truly changed. Simon Magus was an 


IS REGENERATION INSTANTANEOUS? 93 


instance of this kind, and it would seem that many- 
similar cases occurred during the ministry of Christ 
and the Apostles. 

Let us pass now to examine a few passages of 
scripture that seem to indicate God’s method in 
working the great change that brings a soul into the 
new-life. We shall see, it is believed, that the use of 
time, more or less, is clearly implied, in John vi: 
44, Jesus says, “ No man can come to me except 
the Father which hath sent me draw him.” 

Now the drawing of the Father as a necessary 
antecedent to a sinner’s coming to Christ, implies 
that in every case God takes the initiative, and ac¬ 
cording to plan and purpose puts around him, and 
in his heart, influences that lead him to repentance 
and a change of life. What the influences are it 
may be interesting, but is not important, for us to 
inquire. They probably include the work of God’s 
people, and the reproving, or convicting of sin, of 
righteousness and of judgment, by the Holy Spirit. 
Whatever they are, they are probably seldom, or 
never thought of by the one under them, as the work 
of God ; he does not know that God is drawing him, 
only that he is troubled on account of his sins, and 
inclined to seek salvation and to try to live a better 
life. And when, at last, he comes, comes freely, 
voluntarily, and with earnest desire to Jesus, and 
receives a token of the forgiveness of his sin, he is 
likely to think that God’s work upon his soul was 
all done at the moment when he obtained his first 


94 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


view of the Saviour. But that is not true ; at every 
step God has been the real worker, and the awaken¬ 
ing, and conviction, and enlightenment have been 
equally necessary to the change. 

In the fifty-third and fifty-fourth verses of the 
same chapter, we read, “ Then said Jesus unto them, 
verily, verily, I say unto you except ye eat the flesh 
of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no 
life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh 
my blood, hath eternal life and I will raise him up 
at the last day.” It may be said, that this refers 
rather to the maintenance, than to the inception of 
the Christian life, but the address of which it is a 
part was made to unbelievers ; and we must think 
that the Master meant to have them understand that 
they could not begin to live spiritually, until they 
received the gospel, of which he was the embodi¬ 
ment, as the food of their souls, so digesting it, that 
it should become a part of themselves, a vital and. 
controlling part : and so receive his spirit, his life, 
his blood, that their lives should harmonize with his 
life. If they did this, if the truth as it is in Jesus 
became their food, and they received with desire, as a 
thirsty man drinks, the Holy Spirit, they would have 
eternal life. They would be made alive in Christ. 

In James i, 18, it is said, “ Of his own will be¬ 
gat he us with the word of truth.” And in 1 Pet. 
i, 23, “ Being born again, not of corruptible seed 
but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which 
liveth and abideth forever.” 


IS REGENERATION INSTANTANEOUS ? 95 


These texts alone ought to be decisive, and set¬ 
tle finally the question before us. Whatever ideas 
any one may attach to the acts of begetting and 
birth, it is expressly asserted that both are brought 
about instrumentally, by means of the word of God. 
Now we know very well that the truth acts upon 
the heart, where the new life has its seat, not by 
any occult or mysterious power, but as other truth 
acts, through the intellect. It follows of course 
that in order to the commencing of this life, the 
truth must be heard or read—must be thought upon, 
digested, and through the mind must reach the 
heart, and working there, being breathed upon and 
vitalized by the Holy Spirit, must grow into such a 
power—must exert such force as to turn about per¬ 
manently the whole life-current of the man. 

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. 
It is by the foolishness of preaching that God will 
save them who believe. Paul could say to the Cor¬ 
inthians, “ In Christ Jesus I have begotten you 
through the gospel.” 

Here we rest the question ; thinking it quite pos¬ 
sible that the reader is impatient by this time, and 
is asking, “ What is the use of laboring to expose 
and refute this error if it be one ? Is it not harm¬ 
less ? What harm can grow out of it, that people be¬ 
lieve regeneration to be an instantaneous change ?” 

To this it may be replied, that error is always 
more or less harmful. No man can tell how many 
influences for evil may be exerted by what seems a 


96 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


very harmless and innocent error. But it is ear¬ 
nestly believed of this, that, 

IT IS NOT HARMLESS. 

It is believed that serious evils to the cause of 
Christ and to souls grow out of it, partially or 
wholly. 

1. It is an evil —when false hopes of eternal life 
are cherished and encouraged ; and erroneous views 
on this point may do much to foster and build up 
such hopes. 

Certainly it will not be overstating the fact to 
say that there are a multitude of persons in and 
around the churches of this time who “ have a hope,” 
and would think it uncharitable if they were not 
classed among Christians, while yet there is little or 
nothing in their lives to separate them from the 
ungodly. Such persons know that they are not 
Bible Christians, and yet they “ cannot give up 
their hope,” because of certain exercises of mind 
which they once experienced, which they supposed 
proved them to be regenerated. They can not un- 
frequently tell the day and hour—perhaps the mo¬ 
ment, of their conversion. For long years they 
have nursed the memory of the time when the good 
deacons and the minister thanked God for them that 
another soul was “ saved,” was “ born of God,” had 
become “ an heir of God, and a joint heir with 
Christ;” and when the church sang hymns of joy 
and triumph over them, and gladly received them 


IS RE GENERA TION INST A NTANEO US? 97 


into her membership. Everything indeed had con¬ 
spired together to make them satisfied that the 
change in feeling that had come over them was the 
wonderful change of the new birth, and that all 
was well. 

And now, what though they have for many a 
year felt little interest in the things of religion, so 
little that the Bible and prayer have been almost 
wholly neglected ;—what though the old love of the 
world and its questionable pleasures have come back 
as strongly as ever; what though unholy passions 
often hold high carnival in their hearts; is it not 
true that if one is once born of God he will, some¬ 
how, be saved ; and did they not have as good evi¬ 
dence that they became Christians as anybody has ? 
Their mind always turns back to that time, and in 
spite of an inward conviction that they are separated 
very far from God, they find hope that “ the mirac¬ 
ulous touch of the divine hand” was given them, 
and their salvation secured. Begeneration means 
to them, not a radical and thorough change of char¬ 
acter and life, but, a mysterious, half-magical some¬ 
thing, which is chiefly a device for getting people to 
heaven. Tell them that the Bible ideal of a regen¬ 
erate person, is one who is truly and practically con¬ 
secrated to God, and so, holy in the scriptural sense ; 
one who does not live in sin daily; and they will 
probably tell yon,—“ Why nobody lives without 
sin. We don’t believe in perfection. Paul said he 
was carnal sold under sin, and when he would do 
5 


98 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


good evil was present with him. David, the man 
after God’s own heart, sinned ; and Peter denied 
his Lord.” And so conscience will be quieted and 
they will hope on. 

Again we say, instantaneous regeneration is mi¬ 
raculous regeneration; and not only the change it¬ 
self, but also the evidence of the change, is so far 
removed from both consciousness and observation 
that people will hope on and others will hope for 
them, when neither heart nor life shows any change 
from a state of nature. 

2. It is an evil , that a multitude, most of whom 
are at best but partially developed Christians, are 
put forward before an unbelieving world as exam¬ 
ples of the power of regenerating grace. 

The great question which is always open between 
the church and her opposers, relates chiefly to the 
power of the gospel to so change sinful men and 
women, that they will become truly good and holy. 
A true Christian is the religion of Jesus concrete— 
embodied. It is in this way that he is “the salt of 
the earth,—the light of the world,—a living epistle 
known and read of all men.” 

If now, the mistake is made of putting forward 
one in whom the great change is only partially 
wrought, as a child of God, a great wrong may be 
done to the world and to the cause of God, as well as 
to the one himself. 

This mistake it is impossible to avoid if instanta¬ 
neous regeneration is believed in. 


IS REGENERATION INSTANTANEOUS ? 99 


3. It is an evil , that sanctification has almost 
ceased to be regarded as an integral and necessary 
pare of the change in regeneration. 

Recent writers on either or both regeneration 
and sanctification, appear to agree in speaking of 
sanctification as a change necessarily subsequent to 
regeneration. Bunyan in the, Holy War, appears to 
include them in one work; and one can hardly read 
carefully the writings of Doddridge and Edwards 
without the conviction that one regenerated accord¬ 
ing to their ideas was truly sanctified. 

In these latter years sanctification—or rather 
questions in regard to it, have been very much in 
dispute; and the subject has become, in the minds 
of many, so enveloped in the dust and smoke of 
controversy that they have lost interest in it almost 
entirely. 

Regeneration is felt to be the important thing. 
Those who are “born of God” are heirs to the in¬ 
heritance that is incorruptible and fadeth not away, 
may be assured of a home in heaven. Why need 
they perplex themselves with sanctification when it 
is a subject on which there is so much disagree¬ 
ment ? 

But if it should appear by and by, that there has 
been a mistake made, and that one is not sure of 
heaven, is not recognized by God as his child, unless 
he is truly sanctified—what then ? In the New 
Testament the term saints is used more than 
almost any other to designate the regenerate. 


100 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


Saints means sanctified ones, does it not ? In Acts 
xx : 32, and xxvi: 18, Paul speaks of “ all them 
that are sanctified,” meaning thereby all the re¬ 
deemed. In 1 Pet. i: 2, the people of God are 
called, “ Elect, according to the foreknowledge of 
God, through sanctification of the spirit.” This 
must mean that they are chosen—adopted into God's 
family by means of sanctification wrought in them 
by the Holy Spirit. In Heb. xii: 14, it is said, 
“ Follow—holiness,” that is, sanctification, the 
Greek word is the same that in other places is ren¬ 
dered sanctification “ without which no man shall 
see the Lord.” 

Now the world is full of those who think they 
are Christians—that they have been born of God,— 
who yet know that they are in no proper sense sanc¬ 
tified. They are not set apart to Christ as his very 
own, they are not consecrated—devoted to him and 
his interests. More, they know that they do not 
bear his image, either upon their hearts or on 
their lives. Indeed, they would feel that any one 
who should call them saints, or speak of them as 
holy persons in any other than a loose, general way 
that means nothing, was speaking ironically,—per¬ 
haps meant to insult them. 

Will it be said now, that the Bible teaches us to 
regard those who are justified, as in a state of sal¬ 
vation, whether they are sanctified or not ? This is 
taught a great deal. But is it true ! Is there not 
a possible mistake here also ? Justification by faith, 


IS REGENERATION INSTANTANEOUS? 101 


without legal righteousness, without the works of 
the law, is clearly and undeniably taught in the 
New Testament; but is it not as clearly taught that 
the faith that secures justification, is a living, soul¬ 
controlling faith ? Does not such a faith purify the 
heart and make it practically just and holy ? Is not 
justification as really subjective to the soul, as ob¬ 
jective ? Let us be careful that what God has 
joined together, we do not put asunder. 

If you and I have become so married to Christ, 
so become one with him, that he has assumed all 
our debts, and endowed us with all his riches, then 
be sure that in that union we are so self-consecrated 
and spirit-sealed to him, that in our whole being we 
are consciously his—his for time and eternity with¬ 
out the slightest reserve, and this is sanctification. 
Is anything short of this assured salvation ? 

0, it is a thousand pities that the ideas that 
very many Christian people have of justification 
and of regeneration have become so dwarfed and 
emasculated. 

4. It is an evil —that a multitude of those who 
have thought themselves converted, and who have 
really lost their enmity to God and begun to feel 
something of love to him, are yet living in a state 
of chronic perplexity in regard to their spiritual 
state and position. 

This class includes, not seldom, those in the 
churches who are among the most conscientious, 
steady going, and faithful disciples. Their perplex- 


102 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


ity arises from the difficulty of reconciling their 
current experience with their ideas concerning re¬ 
generation. They are sure of themselves that they 
had been changed from what they once were. At 
the same time they have an abiding conviction that 
they do not bear satisfactorily the Bible marks of 
the regenerate. They find in themselves strange 
fluctuations and contradictions. Sometimes they 
are sure that they love God—love him most dearly, 
and that he loves them and smiles upon them. 
Then the world seems to lose its charms, and they 
feel much of a spirit of consecration. But such 
times are not continuous. They try to cling to this 
frame of mind, but somehow it will not stay. In a 
little while their hearts grow cold ; their prayers 
become formal and lifeless ; the old love of the world 
and relish for its pleasures comes back ; old passions 
and propensities wake up into fresh life, and often 
into controlling power ; they neglect duty, and fall 
under the power of temptation and into sin ; their 
good resolutions are broken, and their best hopes 
are blasted. 

Where are they ? What are they ? They do not 
themselves know. Trained, as they have been, in 
the belief that * regeneration is an instantaneous 
change, and that in the nature of the case they 
must be on one side or the other of that mysterious 
line that is supposed to be drawn between the saved 
and the lost; that the change which they have ex¬ 
perienced, which they call conversion, must be either 


IS REGENERATION INSTANTANEOUS ? 103 


the new birth in its fulness or else nothing,—noth¬ 
ing but excited sensibility and self-deception; it is 
no wonder that they are perplexed. 

How shall the perplexity be removed, the doubts 
be solved ? Shall it be by telling them that all 
Christians live in this same half-and-half, up and 
down, sinning and repenting way; that even Paul 
was carnal, sold under sin, and when he would do 
good evil was present with him ; that the best of 
Christians find a law in their members warring 
against the law of their mind and bringing them 
into captivity to the law of sin in their members ? 
If we do this we may have helped them to doubt if 
there be, after all, really anything in regeneration 
more than the effect of excited imagination ; some¬ 
thing too to hinder them from seeking a fuller, 
deeper knowledge of Jesus; but nothing, abso¬ 
lutely nothing to assure them that they are born of 
God. 

V 

Shall we prescribe work as the panacea for their 
ills, and tell them they must be faithful and press 
on, etc. ? We shall still have done nothing to give 
them rest in Jesus and the assurance of faith; but 
only thrown them back again upon self,—the broken 
reed that has pierced them so often. Work may be 
a palliative,—is often a relief to an aching heart— 
and one who thinks he is working for Jesus is likely 
to feel a comfortable self-complacency that is often 
mistaken for religious enjoyment, but if God is lead¬ 
ing him, he will soon be shaken loose from work as 


104 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


a ground of confidence, and will find that it is no 
cure for such ills as his. 

But suppose now, that these disciples could be 
taught to look upon the change they have experi¬ 
enced—whether it were less or more, if it brought 
them nearer to God in love and obedience—as the 
work of God by his word and spirit, and an earnest 
of his love to them, and evidence of his desire and 
purpose to draw them fully to himself and make 
them know the fulness of his salvation ; that it was 
not probably, regeneration in its completeness, but 
a part of that change and a pledge of his willingness 
to do for them and in them, more than they could 
ask or think. Suppose too, that they could be made 
to see that it is God’s way of giving spiritual blessings 
to first awaken a sense of want and a desire for them, 
and then give them in answer to the prayer of faith ; 
that in their case he has already enabled them to be¬ 
lieve in Christ as a sin-forgiving Saviour, and is now 
teaching them their need of him as a heart-keeping, 
sin-conquering Saviour, and is ready to reveal him in 
them as such, if they wholly desire him, and are will¬ 
ing that he shall come in as Master and Lord for¬ 
ever. 

Would not the case take another aspect then ? 
Might we not hope, that instead of looking at self 
all the time and depending really, if not in theory, 
upon self, they would be led to look to Jesus as the 
finisher as well as the author of their faith, and for¬ 
getting the things and questions that are behind, 


IS REGENERATION INSTANTANEOUS f 105 


press onward, to know the height and depth, the 
length and breadth, of the perfect love of Christ, 
and be filled with all the fulness of God; working 
out their salvation with fear and trembling, assured 
that God is working in them both to will and to do 
of his good pleasure ? 

When this is done and Christ is formed in them 
the hope of glory, then and not till then, will their 
regeneration be complete and assured. Then the 
spirit will bear witness with their spirits that they 
are children of God. 

i 

“ 0 love of God, how strong and true! 

Eternal and yet ever new. 

Uncomprehended and unbought, 

Beyond all knowledge and all thought. 

“We read thee best in him who came 
To bear for us the cross of shame; 

Sent by the Father from on high, 

Our life to live, our death to die. 

“We read thy power to bless and save. 

Even in the darkness of the grave; 

Still more in resurrection light 
We read the fulness of thy might. 

“ O love of God, our shield and stay. 

Through all the perils of our way: 

Eternal Love, in thee we rest, 

Forever safe, forever blest! ” 


5 * 



VI. 


REPENTANCE. 

“For godly sorrow worketk repentance unto salvation 
not to be repented of.” 

Repentance and regeneration are very closely 
related. We can hardly conceive of one as occur¬ 
ring without the other. If one be regenerated he 
must have truly repented, and if he have repented 
it can be considered certain that regeneration was a 
coincident fact. 

Calvin, in his “ Institutes,” treats of regenera¬ 
tion only under the head of repentance. Indeed, 
he says,—“In one word I apprehend repentance to 
be regeneration. ” And it is remarkable how little 
he says on the subject in any way. Was this because 
he had not yet wholly freed himself from the idea 
of baptismal regeneration ? It is hard to say, but 
it may be so. Few of the leading reformers of his 
time succeeded in doing it; and among his followers 
the idea of some sort of “divine efficacy” connected 
with baptism has been very persistent. Still we 
must look upon it as a somewhat singular mistake, 
because repentance is plainly the work of man while 
regeneration is the work of Cod. Repentance is 


REPENTANCE. 


107 


commanded and is the duty of every sinful one, 
while the new-birth is promised and given by God, 
to those who repent. 

And yet it will hardly do to say that repentance 
must precede regeneration. They belong together, 
and we mistake if we attempt to put one before the 
other. This mistake is common ; it grows naturally 
out of the idea of instantaneous regeneration. Dr. 
Boyd, in “None but Christ,” says, “Instead of 
repentance being a state of mind that prepares the 
sinner for coming to Christ, it is a state of mind 
which can only be produced by his coming to Christ. 
Instead of repentance leading us to Christ, it is 
Christ that leads us to repentance. It does not go 
before but follows after acceptance through Jesus. 
The moment a man believes savingly in Jesus he 
repents, and he never does before.” 

Repentance, as well as regeneration, is an in¬ 
stantaneous thing then ; and repentance is “ a state 
of mind.” Is this true ? Beyond doubt it is quite 
commonly received as true among Christian people. 
The writer asked a Christian pastor of intelligence 
and standing to define evangelical repentance. He 
replied, “ It is godly sorrow for sin.” Probably a ma¬ 
jority of ministers and intelligent Christians would 
have answered in a similar way ; and they would 
have had the dictionary to support them. But would 
it have been correct ? Is that the New Testament 
idea ? The writer believes not, and begs the read¬ 
er’s patient thought upon that question for a little. 


108 


BORN OF WATER A.ND SPIRIT. 


God now commandeth all men everywhere to 
repent. Does that mean that he requires them to 
be sorry ? AYould it be a reasonable requirement if 
he did ? “ He will not lay upon man more than 

right that he should enter into judgment with 
God.” Would a command to be sorry be so plainly 
reasonable and right that it would appeal to the 
conscience of a sinful man ? To illustrate,—sup¬ 
pose you try such a command upon your boy. He 
has been doing wrong, is keeping bad company and 
getting into bad ways generally. You call him to 
your side and say to him, “ John, I hear much of 
your bad ways ; I am sure that you are living a bad 
life; that you are doing wrong habitually. Now I 
command you to be sorry for your course of life ; 
under penalty of my extreme displeasure, and your 
severe punishment I require you to be sorry for your 
wrong-doing.” How would such a command alfect 
John’s conscience ? What would he think about 
it ? Possibly he might play hypocrite and pretend 
to be sorry. If too honest for that, he would say in 
his heart, “ I wonder if my father thinks I can be 
sorry just when I please. I can’t and I won’t pre¬ 
tend to what I don’t feel. I won’t tell him that I 
am sorry.” And then if you punish him, not for 
the wrong that he has done but simply because he 
is not sorry, he will feel his whole soul rise up in 
indignant protest against your injustice. 

By taking such a course as this, any sensible 
father would expect to confuse all his boy’s ideas of 


REPENTANCE . 


109 


right and wrong, and to harden his heart. In order 
that any one, boy or man may feel the moral force 
of a command, it must harmonize with his sense of 
right. The day has gone by for people to feel that 
kingship or power makes right. 

Perhaps a word may not be amiss, just here, in 
regard to the Law of God. It is spoken of some¬ 
times as a transcript of the divine character and 
so of necessity, so high and holy in its requirements 
that the fallen children of men can have no hope of 
keeping it. It appears to be thought that Adam 
might have kept it; but that it is nothing short of 
heresy to suppose that his children can. 

Now this kind of talk may be all very well meant. 
It may be thought that it glorifies God; but it is 
hard to see how it comes much short of slandering 
him. Doubtless God’s word is intended to reveal 
him to his creatures ; but his law, if it be holy, 
just and good, must be adapted to the ability 
and circumstances of those who are put under it. 
If it is not, it cannot be a just law, and to maintain 
an unjust law dishonors any ruler, would dishonor 
God. Doubtless the glory of God is very dear to 
the heart of every true Christian ; but a little sprink¬ 
ling of common-sense among one’s religious ideas 
would enable him to see that no being can be glori¬ 
fied except by showing him worthy of glory. It 
would not glorify you or me to have our friends 
tell loudly in every public place where they could 
find hearers that we were holy, were perfect. The 


110 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


people would say of us, “ Let us know what their 
life is—what their acts are, and we will judge of 
their perfection. In their hearts they say the same 
thing of God. There is in every human heart a 
tribunal—God-established—before which the right 
and wrong of all acts, of all things, indeed which 
have moral character, must be tried when they come 
to his knowledge. Of course erring men may make 
mistakes, sinful men may judge wrongly, wickedly 
even, but they are constituted by their Creator 
judges nevertheless, and if we would glorify God 
before them we must show him as he is, just and 
good as well as holy. 

But Jesus settled this question as to whether the 
law was above human ability when he said, “ Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart; and 
with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the 
first and great commandment. And the second is 
like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 
On these two commandments hang all the law and 
the prophets.” 

There need be no mistake here. The command 
is, thou shalt love according to thy ability,—thy 
powers of loving. Not according to what God 
deems perfect love; nor according to an angel’s 
powers of loving, nor according to what Adam's 
powers might have been ; but simply according to 
thy heart, and soul, and mind. 

But it may be said that no man ever did, or of 
his own motion ever will, keep even this law of 


REPENTANCE. 


Ill 


love. And so far as appears this is true. Per¬ 
verted affections and a rebellious will-rise up against 
God and his law, and so the law, just and good as 
it is, has failed as a means of controlling men and 
bringing them to holiness and heaven. Kequiring 
nothing but what is reasonable and right, nothing 
but what men can and ought to do, it yet requires 
much which unregenerate men have not heart or 
will to do ; and just on this account the gospel was 
devised as a system of means to change men’s hearts 
and harmonize their will to the will of God. 

Now, repentance belongs to this scheme of the 
gospel, not to the law. When God commands 
repentance he does not require service. Whether to 
repent is to be sorry, or something else, it certainly 
is not of the nature of service to God, or any of his 
creatures. Nor is it properly a grace of character, 
or a fruit of the spirit’s presence. At least it is not 
mentioned among the fruits of the spirit. It is true 
that it is spoken of in several places in the scriptures 
as the gift of God, but it is believed that in most if 
not all of these the term is used by metonomy for the 
gospel. Thus in Acts xi, 18, it is said that when the 
Apostles and brethren had heard Peter’s account of 
the conversion of Cornelius, they said, “Then hath 
God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto 
life.” They meant that God had extended the 
preaching and privileges of the gospel and salvation 
by Christ to the Gentiles. In Acts, v, 31, it is said, 
“ Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a 


112 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel 
and the forgiveness of sins.” Here, also, repentance 
and the forgiveness of sins stand for the gospel way 
of salvation. In 2 Tim., ii, 24, 25, the servant of 
the Lord is exhorted to be patient, “ in meekness 
instructing those that oppose themselves, if God 
peradventure will give them repentance to the ac¬ 
knowledging of the truth.” This, more than any 
other passage in the New Testament, seems to con¬ 
vey the idea that repentance is the gift of God, 
rather than the act of the creature. And beyond 
dispute there is a sense in which repentance or any 
other act that is in harmony with God’s will is his 
gift. But in this passage the connection requires 
us to conceive of repentance not as being sorry, 
but as a change of mind. 

To recur now to our illustration.—Suppose 
you say to your wrong-doing boy,—“ My son, your 
course of life and so far as appears your plan and 
purpose of life is all wrong, wholly wrong and 
wicked ; now I require of you that you stop and 
think soberly and earnestly of your ways, and that 
you change your course, turning away from your 
sins wholly, and live henceforth a new, a good life.” 
This command your son may not obey, but it will 
appeal directly to his conscience and sense of right. 
He will feel the reasonableness of it, and his obliga¬ 
tion to obey ; and if you punish him for disobedi¬ 
ence, he will feel in his inmost soul that the 
punishment was deserved. 


REPENTANCE. 


113 


Now, almost precisely such a command as this 
God gives to his erring, sinful children when he 
says to them, metanoesati —repent—change your 
mind—and so your life. He does not say to them 
“be sorry,” nor “do penance,” but “stop and 
think—take the sober second thought, and do 
differently.” The reasonableness of this command 
the most inveterate sinner will not deny. He can 
understand it ; his conscience will endorse it ; and 
if he do not obey it, he will feel that the fault is his 
own. 

Metanoeo and Metameleomai. 

In the common English version of the New Tes¬ 
tament we find the words repent, repentance, etc., 
used a little more than sixty times. In fifty-six of 
these instances, and it is believed in every one where 
repentance is commanded or urged as a duty, or 
spoken of as connected with salvation, the Greek 
word which is thus translated is some form of 
metanoeo. On the other hand when the idea is that 
something is regretted simply, the original word is 
metameleomai. 

A single passage in Paul’s second Epistle to the 
Corinthians will set the meaning of these two words 
in a clear light. See 2 Cor. vii. 8-10, “ For 
though I made you sorry with a letter I do not 
repent though I did repent; for I perceive that the 
same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were 
but for a season. Now I rejoice, not that ye were 


114 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance; 
for ye were made sorry after a godly manner that 
ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For 
godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to 
be repented of ; but the sorrow of the world work¬ 
eth death.” Now the meaning of this passage is not 
doubtful in the English, but it is much clearer in 
the Greek. In the eighth verse we know that Paul 
meant, “though I made you sorry I do not regret it 
though I did regret it.” He expressed the regret 
by using metameleomai. In the ninth verse he said, 
“Now I rejoice not that ye were made sorry but 
that ye sorrowed to repentance,” and we cannot for 
a moment suppose that he was glad that they had 
sorrowed to regret; we see at once that what he 
was glad of was that their sorrow had brought them 
to a change of mind and of action. This he ex¬ 
pressed by writing metanoian. In the tenth verse 
he lays down the general principle that godly sorrow 
brings about in those who are exercised by it, a 
saving change of mind and life which will never be 
regretted. In doing it he uses lupe to express sor¬ 
row, metanoian for repentance or the saving change, 
and ametameleton for regretted. 

Now is it not greatly to be regretted that 
repent was used to translate both these words ? 
This more than anything else, probably, has led 
to the confused ideas that seem so general in the 
church in regard to repentance. It is no wonder 
that with many, regret has usurped a place in their 



REPENTANCE . 


115 


creed that does not belong to it; but it is rather a 
wonder that when Paul wrote that godly sorrow 
worketh repentance, he should be understood to say 
that it is repentance. 

This seems sufficient to show what evangelical— 
saving repentance really is; that it is something 
very mucli more than sorrow, whether godly or 
otherwise, and of necessity includes the idea of a 
change of mind and life. Keeping this in mind we 
cannot fail to see the great importance of 

THE PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF THE QUESTION. 

Every Christian minister—every Christian who 
has vitality enough to be known as a Christian, is 
liable to be called upon at any time to answer the 
question of an awakened sinner, “ What must I do 
to be saved ?” It is important that he shall be able 
to do it as wisely as may be. Upon the answer may 
hang the destiny of a soul. A mistake may be 
fatal. The f‘ truth as it is in Jesus,” may save a 
soul from death. 

By the way, it is a marvelous thing that in 
revival meetings so many who are very undeveloped 
Christians in both knowledge and experience—“who 
have need that one should teach them again which 
he the first principles of the oracles of God,” are wil¬ 
ling to take upon them the guidance of inquirers. 
It is small wonder when the blind lead the blind, if 
both fall into the ditch. 

But suppose now that one who is truly awak- 


116 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


ened, and feels himself a lost sinner comes to ns 
with the great question, how shall we answer him ? 
Probably we shall say in the words of scripture, 
“ repent and believe the gospel.” If we do, he will, 
it may be, ask again, “But what is it to repent .?” 
We say to him, “You must exercise a godly sorrow 
for sin ; you must be sorry for your sin, not because 
you are in danger of punishment, but because it is 
against God that you have sinned.” Have we aided 
him ? Have we thrown any light upon his path ? 
Nay verily! Beyond much doubt he has already in 
his mind a half formed idea that if he can only feel 
as badly as he ought to, as sorry, God will be pro¬ 
pitiated and forgive him. We have helped to 
strengthen that idea. We may afterwards talk to 
him of Christ and his atonement, but our first words 
have barred the way to Christ by turning his 
thoughts toward the atonement of pain—of sorrow 
of heart. We have not told him to “ do penance.” 
We do not believe in penance. We are inclined to 
smile sadly at the folly of the Romish devotee 
that we read of, who, standing upon his knees on 
pounded glass before a picture of the Virgin Mary, 
thinks to expiate his sin by the pain he endures. 
But how far have we been from telling our poor 
friend to do penance in his heart, that if he can only 
feel enough and the right kind of sorrow, God will 
accept him and all will be well ? 

We must not forget that there is in every unre¬ 
generate human heart, a disposition to depend upon 


REPENTANCE. 


117 


something that self is to do. or that Christian friends 
may do for him to secure God’s favor. Justification 
by faith alone,—just looking to Jesus—is no easy 
thing for a sinner to learn. He will run to almost 
any refuge, he will cling to almost any hope rather 
than let go of everything, and fall helpless and con¬ 
demned into the arms of the Saviour. 

There is another thing to be remembered. Un¬ 
der this kind of teaching many truly awakened 
persons will be discouraged and hindered because 
their hearts are so hard and unfeeling. They will 
think that if they could only feel as they hear others 
tell of feeling they would have some hope ; God 
might then have mercy upon them ; but they can¬ 
not, their heart is hard as a rock. 

Another class may think they have felt just as 
badly as they can, worse than others who have 
found mercy, and yet no relief has come. Tell them 
to be sorry, and you seem like one mocking at their 
distress, and very likely God may seem partial and 
unjust to them. 

Now suppose we say to all these inquirers 'what¬ 
ever their special trouble may be, God’s word to you 
is repent : and he means, not primarily nor chiefly 
that you should be sorry, but that you should turn 
away from your sins and come to Jesus. He does 
not care to see you suffer. He will not be propiti¬ 
ated by your sorrow or pain ; but he does care to 
have you turn to him and strive to do his will in¬ 
stead of your own. He who comes to Jesus in the 


118 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


spirit of submission, taking him as Master, and put¬ 
ting his hand in his to be led henceforth in all his 
life by his will and word, has truly repented whether 
his sorrow for sin has been less or more. If we do 
this, whether they turn or not, we shall, instead of 
mystifying them more and more, have done some¬ 
thing to give them light, and show them that God’s 
requirements are in harmony with their sense of 
right. The gospel word to them is, come to Jesus, 
come now, come just as you are without waiting 
a moment for feeling of any kind, and whosoever 
will may come, and he that cometh shall in no wise 
be cast out. 

But can an unregenerate sinner change his own 
mind and course of life ? Can he repent in this 
sense ? As a legal duty perhaps not,—as a gospel 
privilege he certainly can if he will. The case is 
this :—wherever the word of the gospel comes to 
any human being, if he find it in his heart to listen 
and obey, there is present with him the Holy Spirit, 
whose especial office and mission it is to work in him 
“both to will and to do” all the will of God. It is 
not a question of what he can do alone. Help is laid 
upon one who is mighty, and is waiting for him all 
the time. This changes it entirely from a question 
of ability to one of will. The fact that he is awak¬ 
ened and inquiring shows that the drawings of the 
Father are about him ; and it should be impressed 
upon his mind that he is required to decide now 
whom he will serve. He knows that he possesses* 



REPENTANCE. 


119 


the natural ability to choose his course of life, and 
if he has a sense of his weakness of will and is afraid 
of falling under the power of the temptations and 
allurements of a sinful world, so much the better if 
he will only believe in the divine helper who is ever 
near. An arm of infinite power is always reached 
out toward one who will allow his hand to be taken, 
and it will lift him out of the quicksands and mire 
of folly and sin and place his feet high and firm and 
safe upon the Kock of Ages. The only question is, 
will he be helped ? God does not propose to save 
him against his will. He made him a man—not a 
machine—and gave him the power to choose his own 
course of life, and he proposes to treat him as a man. 
So he comes to him as a friend and warns him of 
danger; he comes as his rightful ruler and com- 
mand-s him to turn from his evil ways; he even 
comes as a loving father to a son, and adds entreaty 
to command, beseeching him to turn that he may 
live. But he does not propose to force one sinner 
to be saved against his will. “Ye will not come 
unto me that ye may have life,” is the sad lament of 
the loving Christ over lost men. “ 0, Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy 
children together as a hen doth gather her brood 
under her wings, but ye would not.” 

Another of the practical bearings of this question 
is seen in the experience of many Christian people. 

There are very many who believe themselves 
God’s children who are church members, and some 


120 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


of them, more or less earnest workers in religions 
matters, who talk about repenting daily. They say 
that their life is made up of sinning and repenting. 
They are understood to mean that after they have 
yielded to temptation and fallen into sin, they are 
sorry for it. Repentance evidently means to them 
being sorry for sin, and they may think their sorrow to 
be godly sorrow, but somehow it does not work much 
change in their course of life. It may lead to many 
good resolutions in regard to what they are going to 
do in the future ; but their life runs on day after day 
in about the old track, and their good resolutions 
are too much like the goodness of Ephraim “as the 
morning cloud and the early dew.” 

Probably you and I, dear reader, have been, possi¬ 
bly we are now, just in this habit of life. And worse, it 
may be that we are contented to remain there, encour¬ 
aged in so doing by the way in which repentance has 
been taught and talked about in our religious circles. 

But is it a good way,—is it the right way for a 
child of God to live ? Do we not know, if we are 
in it, that we are self-indulgent in regard to things 
which God cannot approve ; that we are selfish and 
sinful, and notwithstanding our good resolutions 
have no earnest controlling purpose to be otherwise ? 
Do we not know that our course of life is mainly 
away from God and toward worldliness ;—and that 
when now and then we turn our faces toward him 
we turn them as it were over our shoulder, while 
our feet keep on in the old path ? 



■ REPENTANCE. 


121 


0, how sad it is that there is so much of this 
easy-going, slip-shod religion in the church ! 

If our religious teaching has encouraged us in 
the thought that we may live in this way and yet be 
in the way to heaven, there must be sad mistakes 
somewhere. If repentance means to us something 
that wins God’s favor, and yet does not produce 
a godly, a practically holy life, our mistake is 
there. 

There is, no doubt, a sense in which Christians 
may repent, and ought to, every day. As the sac¬ 
rifice of ourselves upon the altar of God is to be a 
living sacrifice, that is, the spirit of sacrifice, of giv¬ 
ing up all to God is to be continued from moment 
to moment perpetually, so in true repentance there 
may be said to be a continual turning away from 
sin and wrong to God and holiness. But this is a 
very different thing from the vain and impotent 
regret that we have been considering. So long as 
temptation and sin are around us there must be a 
constant exercise of the power of choice in regard to 
the course we take. This choice of God’s way and 
will, this turning to him may become so much the 
habit of the soul as hardly to seem a voluntary act, 
but it is, nevertheless. God may have so taken 
possession of our whole being that we seem to 
have no power to choose against his will, and yet 
the will-power must be awake and keeping the cita¬ 
del of the heart, the arms of faith must be reaching 
out to him, clinging to him all the time. Yes, 

6 


122 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


true repentance must, and will be perpetual repent¬ 
ance. 

This shows us how foolish it is to perplex one’s- 
self over the question, “ Have I truly repented ? ” 
Many are doing it; possibly the reader is one of 
them. He keeps turning his thoughts back, it may 
be to the time when he first found hope, and is anx¬ 
ious oft to know if the sorrow he felt was indeed the 
godly sorrow of repentance. Godly sorrow is so 
hard to define. Did he feel enough and of the right 
kind of sorrow ? Let him be assured that it does 
not matter in the least what his sorrow was, if he 
truly turned from the paths of sin to follow Jesus, 
that was repentance unto life. 

But neither does it matter very much to-day, 
about his truly turning in that former time. The 
important question is, does he now, to-day, turn 
with all his heart, away from selfishness and sin, to 
God, choosing his will and seeking to be led by his 
word and spirit? It is better for us to “ let the dead 
past bury its dead.” We cannot call back and 
change, or cancel one act, no, not one thought of all 
our lives. They have gone to God,—are recorded 
upon his book, and we cannot blot out the record. 
Tears of penitence will not do it, though we wept 
for a thousand years. But the blood of Jesus may ; 
and he says “ come to me, come, and let us talk over 
the matter,—let us reason together, and though your 
sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow, though 
they be red like crimson they shall be as wool.” 


t 


REPENTANCE. 123 

Let us take him at his word and go now, go just 
as we are ; if we have been before we shall know the 
way and it will be easy ; but in either case, the way 
is the same ; let us put the whole matter in his 
hands, just giving ourselves to him as his very own, 
for better for worse, for time and eternity. 

Then we shall, probably, forget to think much 
about our repentance, or care whether it were good 
or bad. The soul that has found rest in Jesus knows 
that its acceptance was not on account of any thing 
right or good that there was about it; but coming 
like the prodigal son all sinful and unworthy, it 
found itself met on the way and enfolded in the 
arms of infinite love. 

“ 1 heard the voice of Jesus say, 

Come unto me and rest; 

Lay down, thou weary one, lay down 
Thy head npon my breast. 

** I came to Jesus as I was. 

Weary, and worn, and sad ; 

I found in him a resting place, 

And he has made me glad. 

“ I heard the voice of Jesus say, 

Behold I freely give 
The living water ; thirsty one, 

Stoop down and drink and live. 

** I came to Jesus, and I drank 
Of that life-giving stream; 

My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, 

And now I live in him. 



124 BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT, 

“ I heard the voice of Jesus say. 

I am this dark world’s light; 

Look unto me, thy morn shall rise, 

And all thy day be bright. 

“ I looked to Jesus, and I found 
In him my Star, my Sun ; 

And in that light of life I’ll walk, 

Till traveling days are done.” 

Bonar. 





VII. 


THE NEW LIFE. 

** I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not 
I, but Christ liveth in me.” Gal. ii, 20. 

Let ns try now to form before our mind’s eye, a 
picture of a Bible Christian ;—a full length portrait 
of one who is God’s child by spiritual generation. 
This is important to our present discussion, because 
the New Birth can be studied objectively, only in 
the resulting life. The coming of the Holy Spirit 
to the soul is wholly imperceptible, even to the soul 
itself. “ The wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh and whither it goeth ; so is every 
one who is born of the spirit.” But, as in nature, 
the peculiar type of life in plant or animal shows 
itself unmistakably by external indications, so the 
new life of the soul will certainly result in new man¬ 
ifestations of character. “ By their fruits ye shall 
know them.” 

Our inquiry then, is for the traits or marks of 
character which the Bible describes as peculiar to 
those who are born of God. We are not interested 
just now in inquiring how far these traits are ex- 


126 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


hibited in the current religious life around us. In¬ 
deed, if it were possible, it would seem desirable for 
us to be unbiased by any comparison of ourselves or 
others, with the Bible ideal of a Christian. We 
may be tempted sometimes to lower the standard of 
excellence in order that we or our works may appear 
to better advantage. 

The traits we seek may be either external and so 
appreciable to others, or internal and appreciable 
only by one’s-self; or they may be both external and 
internal at the same time. Of course when we 
think of the new life as proving itself to others, we 
feel most the importance of the external marks; 
but it is of importance to every one of us to know 
himself, and be sure of his standing before God; 
and we may properly discuss here things which, in 
each individual experience, are secrets between the 
soul and its God. 

In Gal. v. 22, 23, it is said, “ But the fruit of the 
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, 
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” We can 
hardly do better than to follow this list. 

LOVE 

stands first; and of right it is first, because although 
“God is love,” “the carnal mind is enmity against 
God,” therefore true love to God must show that 
the heart is changed. And “love is the fulfilling 
of the law ;” and that, not because it is accepted in¬ 
stead of obedience, but because it properly includes 


THE NEW LIFE. 


127 


and implies all obedience, all service, and all wor¬ 
ship. 

But what is love ? Good-willing—benevolence, 
—this and more—but this first, for true love is best 
distinguished from that which is false, by its unsel¬ 
fish delight in the well being and happiness of the 
beloved one. Impure, unholy love is but another 
name for desire, and is selfish and debasing. It 
seeks self-gratification; while true love—even hu¬ 
man and earthly love delights in self-sacrifice if 
thereby the beloved one is benefited or made happy. 

But is God an object of benevolence to us ? 
Can he be benefited or made happy by any thing 
that we can do ? Well, let us see. We can benefit 
a man—our neighbor, if he has interests around 
us, by promoting those interests, if we have no 
means of acting directly upon him. God has inter¬ 
ests around us which we can promote, therefore he 
is not beyond the reach of our benevolence. Again 
we can benefit a man and make him happy by doing 
good to those he loves. If you have labored to make 
my child, my wife, my dear friend happy, I cannot 
but feel your acts as done to me. God has dear 
friends, dear children all about us, and has told us 
plainly that a cup of cold water given to one of 
them because they belong to him, shall in no case 
be forgotten, and any kindness done to the least one 
of them all is felt by him as done to himself. Be sure 
there is no lack of opportunity to benefit God. The 
need is of loving hearts to prompt willing hands. 


128 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


Nor is there lack of power; for “ if there be 
first a willing mind it is accepted according to 
that a man hath, and not according to that he hath 
not.” 

We may conclude then, that those who are born 
of God will be practically lovers of his children, 
laborers for their welfare, and earnest care-takers 
and workers for his interests. The cause of Christ 
everywhere will be dear to them, and they will labor 
because they love. There will be no need to goad 
them on to duty by threats of punishment, nor to 
stimulate them by telling them that if they are faith¬ 
ful and work they will be happy. Still less will 
there be need to arouse a spirit of emulation, and 
the desire for honor among men. They will give 
and work for God, just because they love him, and 
will need no other motive. 

Again, love is emotional attraction. There is 
something that always draws us towards the be¬ 
loved one ; and if we love God we shall desire, and 
strive to come near to him. Communion with him 
will be our joy ; absence from him a real grief. His 
name will be pleasant to our ears, and we shall love 
the house of his worship—the place where he meets 
his people—and we shall love, too, the closet where, 
with all the world shut out, we can talk with him 
as a man talketh with a bosom friend. This is pro¬ 
bably the form of love most thought of, most sought 
for, in the church generally; and yet it is not the 
best, or highest form. It is in fact the lowest, the 


THE NEW LIFE. 


129 


one most easily counterfeited, and, it would seem, 
may exist in a degree, in a heart where selfishness 
and sin are yet living powers. 

Pure love is hardly passional, is certainly not 
selfish, and is more a state of the soul than an emo¬ 
tion or an act. God is love, we must suppose, not 
because he exercises emotions of love, nor because 
he does loving acts,—although, no doubt both emo¬ 
tions and acts of love are constant with him, but 
because he exists in such a state of mind and heart 
as to be incapable of anything contrary to love. 
Where it is said that he is angry and hates, we must 
understand, only, that he is moved by such revul¬ 
sion of feeling, and such purpose to oppose, as any 
holy, loving being must feel at the sight of sin and 
wrong, and has also such determination to punish 
wrong as is necessary to his being a just ruler. Such 
anger and hate is only a form of love. 

In regeneration, the love of God is shed abroad 
in the heart by the Holy Ghost, who becomes the 
abiding guest and keeper of the soul.—Yes, guest 
and keeper,—he is both ; and where he is there will 
be the highest form of human love, viz. assimilation, 
harmony, oneness of feeling, with God. To one in 
this state, God will, of course, be the first, the su¬ 
preme object of love. Being infinitely more worthy 
of love than any other being or thing, and being in 
perfect union and harmony with the one loving, it 
is but natural that he should be loved with all the 
neart and mind and strength. We must not how- 
6 * 


130 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT . 


ever make the mistake of supposing that one fully 
born of God, and assimilated to him in love, will be 
at all times, excited by as powerful emotions of love 
as he is capable of. God never meant us to be per¬ 
petually excited by any emotion. He did not make 
us capable of enduring long at a time, such tension 
of nerves as sometimes comes from love to himself. 
There is such a thing as resting in love ; when the 
soul, calm, quiet, hardly conscious of emotion, is 
busy, it may be, with worldly things, and yet knows 
every moment, that the deep under-current of its 
life is flowing to God, and with God. 

Such love cannot be hid. The child of God will 
be a fountain of loving thoughts, and words, and 
deeds ; and these will flow out not only towards 
God, but to all around him. Mind—will flow—not 
ought to. The Holy Spirit does not come to a 
man’s heart to teach it that it ought to love, but to 
make it love. And, if one professes to love God, 
and does not love all being around him according 
to its recognized claims; if his love does not make 
his family, his friends, his servants, yes, even his 
horse and his dog happier and more trustful to¬ 
wards him it is not worth speaking of. However 
well such a one may talk, he is like the sounding 
brass and the tinkling cymbal. He may have won¬ 
drous frames and ecstasies even, and yet be no more 
born of God than is the howling dervish in his 
ecstasy. “ Beloved let us love one another, for love 
is of God and every one that loveth is born of God 


THE NEW LIFE. 


131 


and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth 
not God, for God is love.” 

JOY. 

We are told sometimes that a Christian should 
not seek to be happy in this life ; he should be will¬ 
ing to work here, and wait for happiness till he is 
called home to the rest and joys of heaven. The 
idea looks plausible—but it would seem that David 
thought, and under the guidance of the Spirit, too, 
that he could serve God, work for him, better, if he 
could rejoice in God. He says, “ Restore unto me 
the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy 
free spirit; then will I teach transgressors thy ways ; 
and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” Was 
David wrong ? Nehemiah told the people of God 
in his day that the joy of the Lord was their strength. 
Was he mistaken ? Jesus said to the disciples, 
John xv : 11, “ These things have I spoken unto 
you that my joy might remain in you, and that your 
joy might be full.” Did not he know the need of 
his followers ? He did know, and has clearly 
taught, that spiritual joy is necessary to every 
Christian. 

Joy in the Lord keeps the Christian pilgrim in 
the strait and narrow path ; he does not need when 
he is happy in God to seek pleasure in sinful, nor 
even in doubtful ways. Young people who enjoy 
God do not care for the pleasures of the dance, and 
the gay party where extravagant dress, and un- 


132 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


sanctified eating and drinking, and late hours, and 
unholy excitement, dissipate the mind and exhaust 
the body. Older ones too, are kept from the power 
of worldliness, or from any of their peculiar tempta¬ 
tions by the same means. But any one, old or 
young, who is not happy as God would have him be, 
will seek to be happy in some other way, and when 
sinful baits allure, will be very likely to follow sin¬ 
ful paths. 

There is another reason why joy should be a 
trait of the Christian. A happy follower of Jesus is 
a walking recommendation of his Master; a gloomy 
one is like the spies who brought up an evil report 
of the good land. This is why young converts so 
often appear to have more power over the impeni¬ 
tent than others; they are full of joy, and when 
they talk of Jesus, the sinner knows that they feel 
in their hearts something to which he is a stranger. 
The minister, the deacon, the talking members, 
talk and pray from principle and most people are 
sure to be glad when they stop ; but one of the 
weak ones of Zion tells in unaffected phrase of pre¬ 
cious joy in communing with Jesus ; don’t “talk at 
any body ” nor exactly try to do any body any good, 
but just spills over a little of the joy the full heart 
is carrying, and lo ! every drop is caught by some¬ 
body. Such drops fall on dry hard hearts, like the 
summer rain in drought. You and I have been to 
many a prayer-meeting where good and wise men, 
and women, spoke and prayed, and sung, because 



TEE NEW LIFE. 


133 


they thought they ought to, and have gone away 
calling it “agood meeting,” yet down in our secret 
hearts were glad when it was over. The element of 
joy in the Lord was not there, and so far as ever 
appeared, a Quaker meeting, spent in dead silence, 
would have been as profitable. Thank God !—the 
Holy Spirit is given to be our comforter ; and if we 
are fully born of God he has a home in our hearts, 
and we may “be filled with the Spirit,” and “re¬ 
joice evermore.” 


PEACE. 

“ There is no peace saith the Lord unto the 
wicked.” Ho peace ! none with God, because the 
carnal mind is enmity against God, and God is 
angry with the sinner every day ; non-e in the heart, 
because the conscience, the reason and judgment 
are on the side of God, and according to their 
strength are opposing the rule of sin ; none with the 
world, because even boon companions in sin are 
natural enemies, selfishness reigns everywhere, and 
the world’s maxim is, “ Take care of number one.” 

But there is peace in Jesus. He gave us as a 
legacy, gave us as a last best special gift, fulness of 
peace—his peace. He said, “Peace I leave with 
you, my peace I give unto you ; not as the world 
giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be 
troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Blessed words ! 
we will grasp them and hold them as our own, in all 
their full, deep meaning. 


134 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT 1 


But peace does not usually come with the begin¬ 
nings of the work of regeneration. This is as we 
might expect. The soul is in rebellion, and is to be 
conquered for Immanuel. Of course, peace can 
only come when the conflict is over and the victory 
won. The awakened—convicted soul, seems often 
in a very tempest of fight. With the first hope of 
pardon, and the first gush of love to Jesus, there 
comes usually a lull in the battle, and many times 
it seems over ; but usually before long the power of 
unruly propensities is felt again; the “law in the 
members” is not dead and often its power is so put 
forth that the soul is brought into captivity to sin, 
and feels itself “carnal, sold under sin.” This con¬ 
flict may soon end in victory for Jesus, or it may 
under wrong teaching that cripples the power of 
faith, last almost the life-time. Many, indeed, con¬ 
tend stoutly that it must last till death. But Jesus 
did not say, I will give you peace in heaven, but, I 
leave it with you, I give it to you now, to meet a 
present want. The child of God may bear this fruit 
of the Spirit now. 

When the divine Comforter comes to abide in 
the soul peace comes. When he comes to visit the 
soul that is not yet ready and willing to open itself 
fully to him, he brings foretastes of peace that are 
very sweet, but they do not last; the conflict and 
often the bondage begins again. But when sought 
with the whole heart he comes to reveal Christ in 
the soul as Master and Keeper, then a peace is con- 



THE NEW LIFE. 


135 


quered ; and the proclamation of it is the sweetest 
music the soul ever heard. Then peace is like a 
river, full, deep, resistless in its heavenward flow. 

This fruit of the Spirit is especially intended for 
the refreshment of the soul where it grows ; but at 
the same time it is more or less visible to others, 
and is always an ornament to him who bears it, and 
a glory to him who gives it. 

LO^G-SUFFERING. 

The world says, “When you are struck, strike 
back, and give interest if you can.”—Jesus says, 
“ If a man strike thee on one cheek, turn to him 
the other also.” If you strive to obey Jesus and 
repay no wrongs, men call you “ white-livered, tame- 
spirited, a milk-sop.” The world and your nature 
are agreed and speak loudly to you ;—the voice of 
Jesus is very soft. The probabilities—especially if 
you have “ a good temper of your own,”—are largely 
against your obeying Jesus. 

But if the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in you, 
and fills you with love not only to the good and 
gentle, but also to the froward, gives you such love 
as Jesus felt for his murderers when he prayed, 
saying, “Father, forgive them, they know not what 
they do ;” such as Stephen felt when in dying agony 
he cried, “Lay not this sin to their charge ;” then 
vou may be long-suffering in spite of nature and the 
world. We must remember though, that few of us 
are called to be martyrs. Our long-suffering will 


136 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


be quite as likely to be tried by the little annoying 
things, against which we cannot arouse any heroism 
or imagine ourselves showing the martyr-spirit. The 
unreasonableness or fretfulness of a companion or a 
child, coming, as it often does, at a time when we 
are nervous and irritable from disease or weariness, 
will, very likely, sorely try our Christian graces, 
and this of long-suffering quite as much as any. 
And we may remember too, that by bearing such 
trials aright; by meeting the thousand and one lit¬ 
tle vexations of every-day life with equanimity and 
Christian long-suffering, we are giving a proof of 
our regeneration, of our being led by the Spirit, as 
effective, and convincing to those around us as any 
we could give. 


GENTLENESS. 

It is possible that to some it may seem almost 
strange that gentleness should be put among the 
fruits of the Spirit. Truth, and plain, faithful deal¬ 
ing, one with another, such as the gospel requires, 
are thought to require, or at least to excuse blunt¬ 
ness, and even harshness of manner. All of us have 
met people who evidently valued themselves more 
highly because they were disagreeable. The dislike 
which they incurred was persecution, and a proof of 
their godly faithfulness. “ Ah, these times are sadly 
degenerate ! People will not endure sound doctrine 
and reproof any more.” But dear friends permit 
the suggestion that possibly it was not so much the 


THE NEW LIFE. 


137 


truth that offended, as the manner in which it was 
clothed. It may be there was a “ tang ” of ill- 
nature in your words—that you really felt a little 
cross, and for the moment had as lief your words 
would sting as not. It has been the experience of 
many, that if they could be sure that there was 
nothing in their own hearts contrary to love, and if 
their manner was gentle and kind, they could be 
very faithful in exhortation and reproofs, without 
giving offence. 

In the world, gentleness, suavity of manner, po¬ 
liteness, often cover a deceitful heart. But this 
should not lead us to forget that when they are 
worn honestly, they are a true grace of character. 
Worldly politeness may be a counterfeit brilliant, 
only paste; Christian gentleness is the real gem. 
Growing over the character from a loving heart, it 
is almost like a robe of nacre, so soft and pearl-like 
is its beauty. 

It is too, a blessed indication of the presence in 
the heart of the divine comforter. Many a time 
have we seen those who had earned a reputation for 
harshness and unkind judgments, become most care¬ 
ful of the feelings of others, most kind and loving in 
their manner, and even the tones of their voice are 
softened and made sweet, when the Holy Spirit has 
breathed himself in upon their heart-life. 

Nor will such gentleness weaken the testimony 
which may be borne for the truth and against sin. 
Strong, and even stern rebukes may be given to sin 


138 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


and wrong by one whose heart is so full of love that 
it would gladly suffer itself, to save the sinning one. 
Jesus was no weakling in his words ; albeit the world 
has seen no one so gentle as he. 

GOODNESS. 

This is eminently a practical trait of character, 
and does not need many words to show its excellence 
or urge its importance. To be good, is to be like 
God ; and like him to shed blessings all around one. 
Jesus our example, went about doing good every¬ 
where. If we receive his spirit, if we are so born 
of God as to become his true brothers, we shall par¬ 
take of his nature and do as he did, according to the 
ability and opportunity given to us. 

FAITH. 

Faith is commanded to all men. It is a reasona¬ 
ble duty which every man owes to God. To fail of 
believing in Jesus is to fail of salvation. And yet, 
faith is a fruit of the Spirit,—a sign of his presence, 
a proof that he who acts it, is born of God. It ap¬ 
pears, indeed, that an unregenerate sinner cannot 
even understand clearly what faith is. The infer¬ 
ence may naturally be drawn from this that God 
commands what the sinner cannot do, and so is an 
unjust ruler. But it must be remembered that God 
offers to every sinner where the gospel comes, just 
the help which he needs to enable him to believe 
and be saved. It does not make God unjust to re- 


THE NEW LIFE . 


139 


quire that which is impossible to us, if he is at the 
same time giving the ability which makes it possi¬ 
ble. Sinners are condemned now, because they will 
not avail themselves of the help offered them ; and 
who will say this is not just ? 

But, faith is not well understood among Chris¬ 
tian people. There is a vast deal said about it; and 
still a multitude seem not to understand it as a sub¬ 
ject, nor be able to put it forth as an act. Why is 
this ? Are these not born of the Spirit ? We must 
consider this question by and by,—now we may re¬ 
mark, simply, that faith depends upon the work of 
the Spirit in the heart, and its development will in¬ 
dicate well the progress of the soul to, and in the 
new life. Where the Holy Spirit is received, so that 
he abides in the soul, saving faith will be in exercise 
there. But, what is saving faith ? Somebody says, 
“It is just taking God at his word;” and perhaps a 
better definition was never given, yet it is not quite 
all we want. 

Faith is taking Jesus to be our Saviour ;—is tak¬ 
ing hold of him, as he is revealed to us to be for us 
all he is revealed as being for any. It is taking 
him as our atoning Saviour, and looking to him iii 
humble trust that he will secure for us—does now 
give to us—the full pardon of all our sins. People 
who have not faith, may be scandalized, by the idea 
that sin can be forgiven, cancelled, blotted out on the 
record book of God ; but the soul that believes 
knows by a sense more unerring than sight that for 


140 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


him it is done. The promise of God, on which his 
faith takes hold, is all he wants. He is willing to 
risk all the interests of time and eternity upon that 
word alone. He says : Jesus Christ came into the 
world to save sinners—his proclamation is “ Whoso¬ 
ever will, let him come to me he comes, and com¬ 
ing knows that though his sins were red like crim¬ 
son, they are so washed away in his blood, that the 
stains are all gone, and gone forever. As far as the 
east is from the west so far hath he removed his 
transgressions from him. He knows,—that word is 
used advisedly—there is a knowledge quite as real 
as any given by sight, or hearing, or touch, or all 
together ; you do not understand it?—well, that 
proves nothing, unless it proves that one side of 
your nature is yet undeveloped, that you are sepa¬ 
rated from God by wicked works, and need to be 
born again. 

But, Jesus is revealed to us as our divine teacher, 
and leader, and faith receives him as such, and de¬ 
lights to be taught and led by him. 

In John i: 11-13 it is said of him, that, “ he 
came unto his own, and his own received him not. 
But as many as received him, to them gave he power 
to become the sons of God even to them that believe 
on his name, which were born, not of blood, 
nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of 
man but of God.” To many it, no doubt, appears 
strange that the people of Christ’s time, and nation, 
did not receive him. They think that if he were to 


THE NEW LIFE . 


141 


come now, they certainly would be ready and glad 
to receive him, and would follow his lightest word. 

But it is not so certain .that they would. Jesus 
was a disappointment to the religious people of his 
time. He did not come walking in their track. 
The Pharisees expected the Messiah to be a Phari¬ 
see. The Sadducees looked for a ruler who would 
sympathize with them. The Essenes expected 
him to be an ascetic like themselves. All were dis¬ 
appointed, and all agreed in rejecting him. It is 
quite possible that things would take a similar 
course if he were to come now as a teacher. If he 
were to come walking in the Baptist track, Pedo- 
baptists would hardly recognize him as the teacher 
for them. If he should appear as a Presbyterian 
and a Calvinist, Armenians and believers in the 
Apostolic Succession would surely fail to see his 
divine credentials. And so through all the list. 
Each sect would be blind to his claims if he did not 
teach according to its standards. 

Denominational creeds and organizations have 
their value no doubt ; but it is more than likely 
that the master does not fully endorse any of them. 
It were well if all could feel this, and be humble 
disciples, rather than the proud and somewhat will¬ 
ful teachers they now sometimes seem to be. Jesus 
has lived, and does live now in different and quite 
opposite sects. Fenelon was a Roman Catholic, 
Newton was an Episcopalian, Bunyan a Baptist, 
Bramwell a Methodist, James Brainard Taylor a 


142 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


Congregationalism and yet the Holy Spirit found a 
home in each of their hearts. This however is true 
—he who fully receives Christ as his teacher, will be 
lifted above sectarian lines and creeds. He may ac¬ 
cept them, but he will not be fettered by them. 
The word and spirit of God will open to him greener 
pastures, and lead him beside sweeter waters, than 
the mere sectarian can ever know. He will drink 
from the mountain spring rather than from the 
ditch on the plain. Then too all who do fully 
receive Christ as their teacher by a full and all ap¬ 
propriating faith, are essentially one, not only with 
him, but with each other. Denominational lines 
cannot keep them from mutual love and union of 
soul. The Saviour’s prayer “ that they all may be 
one,” is answered even now. God speed the day 
when all shall so receive him, that such lines will be 
no longer possible, but shall fade away in the clearer 
light of the perfect day. 

But Christ is king as well as Saviour and 
teacher, and faith must receive him in this relation 
as well as the others, if it is to be a good proof of 
the new birth, a true fruit of the Spirit. What is 
it to receive him as king ? 

An earthly monarch is making a tour through 
a part of his dominions. There has been rebellion ; 
but it has ceased and all resistance to his power is 
at an end. He desires to not only give his subjects 
an opportunity to manifest their allegiance, but to 
give them evidence of pardon and of his good will.. 


TEE NEW LIFE. 


143 


Hence his journey or progress. One evening just at 
night-fall he reaches a place, where on either side 
of a beautiful valley, through which the highway 
runs, there stands a noble mansion or castle. 
These are owned and occupied by men of large 
wealth and extensive influence. As he enters the 
valley, he sees on one of the castles his own banner 
flying. As he comes nearer, the owner comes forth 
and invites him to be his guest;—invites him to take 
possession of everything as his own, to install his 
servants and retainers in their places, and put his 
own soldiers on guard ; in a word, to make the cas¬ 
tle his home. The invitation is evidently sincere, 
and on every hand there are evidences of joy that 
the king has come. The other castle is not opened 
—no demonstrations are made, no invitation is ex¬ 
tended—the master of it sends a message asking for 
pardon and protection, but excuses himself from 
personal attention to the king, on the plea that he 
is busy with his harvests and cannot take time. At 
the same time he keeps all the castle gates closed, 
and everything in the posture of defence. 

One of these men receives the king as his king, 
exercises faith in him, trusts him fully. The other 
does not. Which of them am I like ?—that is the 
question. 

If, by faith, I receive Christ to my heart as 
King, everything in me, which is offensive to him 
must be put away. All evil thoughts must be denied 
and resisted. Evil thoughts may often be suggested. 


144 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


or thrown into the mind in such a way that one is 
hardly responsible for them. They may come from 
one’s necessary contact with the evil that is in the 
world, may arise by the laws of association, or may 
be suggested, probably, by evil spirits. They are 
not necessarily sinful to us. Their sinfulness de¬ 
pends on their being indulged, cherished in the 
heart. If Christ is to be our guest, they must be 
opposed, resisted, and excluded from us. It would 
be an insult to him to expect him to abide in a 
heart where they are cherished. 

The affections and appetites , must be subdued and 
controlled so as to be subject to Christ's will. 

These, in fallen human nature, are the seat of 
depravity and the fountain of all sin. Not necessa¬ 
rily sinful of themselves—their unrestrained, lawless 
action is the ruin of the soul; their subjugation and 
regulation, by the Holy Spirit, is the completion of 
the regeneration of the soul. He who aspires to the 
honor and blessedness of receiving his Lord and 
Saviour, will strive to keep his body under and 
bring it into subjection ; will crucify “ the flesh 
with the affections and lusts.” He who by faith 
receives him, will submit all these to his sentence 
and control. Doubtful of his own ability—or 
better, sure of his inability to master them, he 
will gladly avail himself of the power of the king 
himself, and put them without reserve, into his 
hands. 

All plans and purposes of life, and action, must 


THE NEW LIFE. 


145 


be unreservedly submitted to his supervision and 
control. 

Perhaps, the simple relation of a subject to his 
king or government does not imply this entire sur¬ 
render of will—this entire abnegation of self. But ' 
you and I have been rebels against our king; and 
if we are ambitious of his confidence and favor; if 
we would have him become our guest, and abide 
with us, there must be unconditional submission, 
and we must learn to say in regard to every thing, 
“not my will but thine be done.” If we have that 
faith which is a fruit of the Spirit, and which proves 
our New Birth, we shall do this, and even though 
the Master’s will appoint for us the heaviest crosses 
or the deepest afflictions, we shall be able, trusting 
his omniscient love, to look up and say from our 
heart, daily—constantly, “Thy will be done.” 
Faith as well as love, implies entire consecration. 

MEEKNESS. 

This is a trait of character not greatly sought 
for by the world. The successful man is the ad¬ 
mired man. “ Men will praise thee when thou 
doest well for thyself.” And it seems to be thought 
that a considerable amount of self-assertion is essen¬ 
tial to success in any of the world’s callings, not ex¬ 
cepting the ministry and other occupations con¬ 
nected with religion. God and the angels may ad¬ 
mire meekness; it may be at a premium in heaven ; 
in this world it is certainly at a discount. And yet 
7 


146 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT . 


it will appear, and that with prominence, in the 
characters of those who are fully born of God. 
Where the spirit dwells it will grow. 

It is a common opinion that those who profess 
the perfect love that casteth out all fear, and talk 
of walking “without condemnation,” and of “rest¬ 
ing in Jesus,” are more or less spiritually proud ; 
but all who really receive the Holy Spirit, so that 
they are conscious of divine union, and of being 
filled with the fulness of God, know very well that 
the coming of the Comforter is attended bv such a 
sense of their own utter vileness and weakness and 
ill-desert before God, that they desire from the heart 
to take the lowest possible place before him and be¬ 
fore their fellows. If they feel that they have 
learned some lessons of Jesus which others have not, 
or are admitted to a closer communion with him 
than others, there is still no thought that they have 
been favored because of superior excellence or faith¬ 
fulness, they know that this could not be ; and they 
only wonder at the goodness of God, and sav, as the 
only reason they can give, “Even so Father, for so 
it seemeth good in thy sight.” That they are ex¬ 
posed to the temptation of pride, they know as well 
as others, perhaps better. But they also know 
that he who has come in to keep their spirits, is 
“ mighty to save ” from the sinful workings of 
their own hearts, as well as from external foes, and 
they rest in his power and love, expecting him to 
do all he has promised to do and in every tempta- 


THE NEW LIFE. 


147 


tion make a way of escape that they may be able to 
bear it. 

If they do become proud,—if, when they .tell of 
the spiritual riches with which they are endowed, 
they show a disposition to say “ mine own hand hath 
gotten me this wealth,” rather than to give all—all 
the glory to God ; then they may be sure, and others 
may know that they are deceived in regard to their 
state ; that the Holy Spirit does not abide in them, 
that they are not fully born of God. Still, a pass¬ 
ing word, a momentary flash of the spirit, is not a 
sufficient test of character to furnish ground of 
condemnation ; that is, of human condemnation. 
Moses spoke hasty words at Meribah, he was chas¬ 
tised for them, but they do not prove anything 
against his character as a man of God. Indeed 
they served rather to honor his divine keeper, by 
showing for a moment what Moses without God 
would be; thus making the habit of his life appear, 
as it was, the work of God in him. 

It is a little difficult to distinguish meekness 
and humility from each other. Perhaps we can do 
it as well as in any way by saying that humility ex¬ 
presses the attitude of a truly Christian soul before 
God; and meekness its bearing before the world ; 
the manner in which it receives the misunderstand¬ 
ings, the misrepresentations, the taunts and jibes, 
all the bitter words or cruel acts which it may meet. 
The consecrated Christian—the Bible Christian— 
will meet with such things. They will come some- 


148 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


times from friends, sometimes from fellow-disciples, 
and be hard to bear. But meekness is a fruit of the 
Spirit, and where he is, it will be borne, will be 
manifested. The child of God will take patiently 
the bufferings of his pilgrimage, either remaining 
silent, like his Master, or speaking the soft words 
of a loving spirit. 


TEMPERANCE. 

The word Temperance has been in these latter 
years almost a technical term. When we see it. we 
think of the struggle that has been going on against 
the use of intoxicating beverages. In this struggle, 
the advocacy of temperance has been a profession. 
As a matter of course, the term itself has become 
exalted or abased in our minds, according as we 
have favored one or the other side, or as we have 
seen it advocated in a manner to excite admiration 
or disgust. 

Considered however as a fruit of the Spirit, and 
a result of the New Birth, temperance must have no 
such narrow or technical import, and should have 
none of these associations. It may—it is believed 
that it certainly will—include abstinence from in¬ 
toxicating beverages, but it also includes much 
more. Where Paul, in 1 Cor. ix : 25-27, said, 
“ And every man that striveth for the mastery is 
temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a 
corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I 
therefore so run, not as uncertainly ; so fight I, not 


THE NEW LIFE. 


149 


as one that beateth the air : but I keep under my 
body, and bring it into subjection ; lest that by any 
means, when I have preached to others I myself 
should be a castaway,” he expressed the Christian 
idea of temperance. In this passage he stands be¬ 
fore us as the Christian athlete, training his body to 
the greatest possible vigor and efficiency that he 
might the better go through the race—the struggle 
that was before him. So the athletse of both an¬ 
cient and modern times have done. Even the 
brutal prize-fighter, when he is in training, foregoes 
all his vices. His body is held under the most rig¬ 
orous control. His habits must all be most regular, 
and simple. What he does to win his ignoble 
victory, the Christian does to win a crown from the 
hand of Jesus. Christian temperance then, implies 
entire self-control, and the subjugation of all one's 
powers to the uses of a true Christian life. 

The consecrated Christian will not drink “ wine 
or strong drink,” because, he is a Nazarite unto 
God, and his body is to be treated as the temple of 
the Holy Ghost. Even wine taken as a beverage— 
of course it may be taken as a medicine—Paul re¬ 
commended Timothy to take it so—is an indulgence 
which will always weaken the soul in its struggles 
toward God and holiness. It may stimulate the in¬ 
tellect, and give a sort of inspiration that may be 
mistaken for spiritual aid. Even ministers have 
been thought, and possibly have thought themselves, 
spiritually inspired, when inspired only by wine or 


150 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


tobacco. But the experience of the Christian world 
is believed to be uniform on this point that where 
resort is had to artificial stimulants for the sake of 
the excitement they give, the Holy Spirit is grieved 
and flies away. God takes the soul that comes to 
him in its weakness and impurity, just as it is ; he 
does not ask that it be made holy before he accepts 
it; he proposes to wash and cleanse it for himself ; 
and doing so he expects, and surely has a right to 
expect to be its joy and strength. 

But again, the child of God will deny himself 
the use of intoxicating beverages, because by using 
them, he will encourage and strengthen others in 
their use, and so promote the temporal and eternal 
ruin of souls. His language is not, “Am I my 
brother’s keeper ?” but rather, “If meat make my 
brother to offend, I will eat no more meat while the 
world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.” 

Tobacco has been mentioned. It appears to be 
quite commonly regarded as not at all unchristian 
or intemperate to use tobacco. Many a minister 
can hardly study his sermons without his pipe or 
cigar, and needs its stimulus in the pulpit, while his 
deacons mayhap would be so restless that the ser¬ 
mon would do them no good were they without 
their tobacco. Perhaps the use of tobacco should 
hardly be called a positive vice. It certainly is an 
uncleanly habit that injures many persons, seldom 
if ever does real good, is an expense to many that 
they can not well bear, and leads to association with 


THE NEW LIFE. 


151 


positive vice. More than almost any other habit, it 
enslaves its victims. A confirmed tobacco-user is 
not master of himself; does not possess that self- 
control which is essential to temperance. 

When entire consecration has become the expe¬ 
rience of any one, it has usually led to the giving up 
of this habit. When Jesus cleanses the temple of 
the heart, and makes it his abode, it will hardly re¬ 
main long defiled with tobacco. 

Christian Temperance will also take cognizance 
of our daily habits of eating and drinking. It does 
not require asceticism. Its idea is not that the body 
is the enemy of the Spirit, and is to be macerated 
and weakened by rigorous fasting, and abstinence 
from all pleasant food; but rather that we should 
eat and drink for strength and usefulness, and to 
the glory of God. This one cannot do who indulges 
in gluttony, or in eating for the mere pleasure of 
eating at unseasonable hours. 

Habits of dress, and personal adornment, will 
also be under the care of Temperance. It has been 
always felt by those who have fully given themselves 
to Christ, that they must not be the slaves of fashion. 
Some have felt that all adornments must be put off. 
Others that this was not necessary or- wise. No uni¬ 
form rule has ever been adopted, probably none ever 
will be ; it is at least doubtful, if one is desirable. But 
the rule of subordinating every thing to the real good 
of ourselves and others, must be applied according 
to the wisdom which God shall give to each one. 


152 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


Christian homes furnish abundant opportunities 
for the manifestation and exercise of this grace. 
Homes in the more crowded parts of our country, 
seem to be almost passing from the list of necessities 
to that of luxuries. There is so much of expensive 
and ostentatious display on the part of those who 
can command means for it; and so much of emula¬ 
tion among those who have less means, that a mul¬ 
titude of young men are unwilling to marry, perhaps 
fear to before they become rich ; and as many of 
them never do become so, marriages seem almost to 
be growing out of fashion except among the rich or 
the very poor. Similar reasons probably lead many 
who are married to dread the birth of children, be¬ 
cause they may be an expense and a hindrance to 
indulgence in worldly pleasures, and to take unholy 
and murderous means to prevent it. It looks some¬ 
times as though in this respect things were going on 
from bad to worse, and as though virtuous Christian 
homes where children are received as from the Lord, 
a blessed trust from him, would become almost rare. 
God only knows what is before us. But Christian 
men and women, if they are willing to be temperate 
in all that relates to their home life ; and subordi¬ 
nate everything to the principles of the gospel, may 
do much to check this tendency. They may show 
to those around them that happy homes can be 
made on moderate means; and that without emula¬ 
ting the rich, they can be truly self-respectful. 

Truly, “ godliness is profitable to all things 


THE NEW LIFE. 


153 


having promise of the life that now is,” as well as, 
“ of that which is to come.” But in order to be 
profitable it must be controlling. The whole life 
must be brought into subjection, and we must walk 
not after the flesh but after the Spirit. 

VICTORY OVER THE WORLD. 

In 1 John v: 4, the apostle says, “For whatso¬ 
ever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is 
the victory that overcometh the world even our 
faith.” The world is the antagonist of Christian 
life and progress ; but a living faith born or begot¬ 
ten of God in the soul is more than a match for it, 
and will surely overcome. This is the doctrine of 
this text. 

The opposition of the world to one who is trying 
to please God, is exhibited sometimes in persecution 
and direct opposition, oftener by temptation and 
seductive arts, but more constantly and powerfully 
than in both these ways, by that nameless influence 
that is always exerted by a community of persons 
on the individuals composing it. This influence is 
not exactly public opinion, it is more subtle and 
imponderable, and also more pervasive and power¬ 
ful than that. It is a sort of moral atmosphere 
which no .man can see, but which every man feels. 
Now and then, as in seasons of revival, and in a few 
favored places, the influence is felt on the side of 
godliness ; but almost everywhere and always it is 
opposed to it. Indeed, so constantly is this true, 


154 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


that the Bible always speaks of the world as a power 
opposed to God, and represents the Christian as in 
a constant warfare with it. 

The child of God will not of himself and by his 
own will and strength triumph over this influence. 
Unaided by divine power he might make good reso¬ 
lutions and struggle for a time to keep them, but he 
would be soon overborne by the current, and floated 
off with the crowd. But if by a living faith he en- 
temples in himself the Holy Spirit, then he will be 
kept by the power of God, and will become a power 
himself, able to not only stand against the pressure, 
but make headway against it. He will grow stronger 
with every conflict, and become not only a con¬ 
queror, but more than a conqueror of all the leagued 
forces of evil. 


WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. 

“ The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit 
that we are children of God.” Rom. viii: 16. 
“ He that believeth on the Son of God hath the 
witness in himself.” 1 John, v: 10. 

There are many who think that true Christian 
modesty will manifest itself in doubts of one’s adop¬ 
tion ; that real divine enlightenment will make one 
feel so unworthy of God’s favor, that it will be but 
natural to fear that he does not accept him. 

There is a mistake here. The humility that 
doubts is not perfect. The divine enlightenment 
that excites fear, is but the partial work of the 


THE NEW LIFE. 


155 


Spirit. When the soul so sinks into nothing before 
God, that Jesus becomes its all in all, and is re¬ 
ceived as a full Saviour, its worthiness or unworthi¬ 
ness, its goodness or badness, ceases to be thought 
of as having anything to do with its acceptance by 
Christ. A sense of utter unworthiness is the habit 
and posture of the soul before God, and if you were 
to reveal to such a one a depth of sinfulness in his 
nature that he had never dreamed of, you would 
only have driven him closer to Christ and made him 
feel more the immeasurable and unutterable love 
that had taught him to say “Abba Father.” “He 
that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 

When the Holy Spirit comes as the Comforter to 
abide in us he brings such a sense of divine union 
that we cry out in the words of a hymn which our 
fathers used to sing more than we do, 

“ Bat this I do find—we two are so joined, 

He can’t live in glory and leave me behind.” 

CONTINUANCE OF LIFE. 

There are few outward signs of Christian charac¬ 
ter which may not be sometimes exhibited under cir¬ 
cumstances of sympathetic or emotional excitement 
by unregenerate persons. Every observant person 
who has been much in religious meetings knows 
that it is very easy to become imitators of the words, 
manners and even tones of those we hear speak and 
pray. And wherever the gospel has been preached 
for a length of time, there are many scattered 


156 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


around who have believed themselves, and others 
have believed them to be' Christians, but time and 
trial have proved them otherwise. 

Only continued signs of life prove vitality in 
what seems to live. A dead body may be galvanized 
into motion ; a tree severed from its root may yet be 
so set in the ground as to seem for a time a living 
tree; a branch may be so skilfully fastened to a 
vine as to appear a living part of it; but neither 
body, nor tree, nor branch will have continuance of 
life. 

In John viii. 31, Jesus said to those who pro¬ 
fessed to believe on him, “If ye continue in my 
word, then are ye my disciples indeed.” This was 
equivalent to saying, “ I see that your present im¬ 
pulses are right, perhaps your purposes are, but it 
will need something more than impulses and reso¬ 
lutions to enable you to follow and obey me long; 
if you continue to obey me, to keep my word, yon 
will show that a new life has indeed begun in you 
and that you are my disciples.” 

Paul in Col. i, 21-23, says, “ And you that were 
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by 
wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body 
of his flesh through death to present you holy and 
unblamable and unreprovable in his sight; if ye 
continue iu the faith grounded and settled, and be 
not moved away from the hope of the gospel.” Re¬ 
conciled, in this place means harmonized with God 
and includes regeneration. The meaning is that 


THE NEW LIFE. 


157 


continuance in the life of the gospel, and nothing 
short of this, would prove their union with God, their 
new birth. 

Peter speaks of God’s children, as “ kept by the 
power of God, through faith, unto salvation.” 
Many seem to have lost the word faith from their 
idea of this passage, and to think only that it prom¬ 
ises salvation to Christians. This is losing the real 
point. The faith which was in Peter’s mind as the 
means by which the saints are kept, was a living, 
active, earnest clinging of the soul to God. Such 
faith cannot be predicated of one who is not truly 
alive and awake and struggling as a wrestler for the 
prize. 

In 1 John iii. 9, we read, “Whosoever is born” 
—or begotten—“of God doth not commit sin, for 
his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin be¬ 
cause he is born of God.” This is a strong assertion 
of two principles, viz., that the life of God’s child is 
a continuing life, and that it is a controlling life. 
The idea is, that every life has its own type and 
manner of development. One who is born by natu¬ 
ral generation will be a child of the flesh, “ carnal, 
sold under sin,” and cannot fail to walk after the 
flesh; so one who is begotten of God will receive 
God’s nature, and will be holy, walking “not after 
the flesh but after the Spirit;” and because the vi¬ 
talizing force, the “seed” remaineth in him, ever 
renewing the life it gave, he will continue to so 
walk, being led by the Spirit, and, in his manifested ^ 


158 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


life will put on “the new man which after God is 
created in righteousness and true holiness.” Of 
course the inability of one born of God to commit 
sin, must lie only in this, that because, from his 
God-derived nature and state of heart, he loves holi¬ 
ness and hates sin, he will certainly follow what he 
loves and shun what he hates. We are not to un¬ 
derstand from the passage that it is absolutely im¬ 
possible for one born of God to commit sin; the 
Scriptures do not allow us to take that ground ; but 
they do fully warrant us in saying that one fully 
regenerated will be good and practically holy, and 
will, day by day, live in the love and service of God. 

“ Quiet, Lord, my fro ward heart, 

Make me teachable and mild. 

Upright, simple, free from art, 

Make me as a weaned child. 

From distrust and envy free. 

Pleased with all that pleases thee. 

“ What thou shalt to-day provide, 

Let me as a child receive ; 

What to-morrow may betide, 

Calmly to thy wisdom leave ; 

'Tis enough that thou wilt care ; 

Why should I the burden bear ? 

“Asa little child relies 

On a care beyond his own, 

Knows he’s neither strong nor wise. 

Fears to stir a step alone ; 

Let me thus with thee abide, 

As my Father, Guard, and Guide. 





TEE NEW LIFE . 


159 


“ Thus preserved from Satan*s wiles, 
Safe from dangers, free from fears. 
May l live upon thy smiles 

Till the promised hour appears ; 
When the sons of God shall prove 
All their Father’s boundless love.” 


Newton. 



CHAPTER VIII. 


CONVERSION. 

** And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spir- 
ual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.” 

1 Cor., iii. 1. 

If the attempt which has been made to charac¬ 
terize a Bible Christian has been successful, and in 
the line of truth, it has been demonstrated that re¬ 
generation is a change so radical and thorough as to 
necessarily produce in those who are its subjects a 
good life,—a life that may be fairly and truthfully 
called holy. 

The task which is now before us is not a pleasant 
one. It is a difficult one. It seems necessary to 
compare, as well as we may, the current religious 
life of Christian people—church members—at the 
present day with the Bible standard. Of course, 
this can be done only in a very general and imper¬ 
fect way ; and one attempting it can hardly hope to 
escape being thought uncharitable and censorious. 

Are Christian people generally, as we meet them 
in evangelical churches, Bible Christians ? Do they 
bear the traits that we have found to characterize 
those who are born of God ? 


CONVERSION. 


161 


To ask these questions is almost to answer them. 
We know that a very large proportion of such per¬ 
sons, not only make no profession of living holy 
lives, but evidently think it is not expected of them 
to do so. They appear satisfied if they can be reli¬ 
gious, in a way, on Sundays and special occasions, 
and keep on what seems to them about the level of 
other professedly Christian people. They are also, 
many of them, inclined, if holiness be mentioned as 
a Christian attainment, to associate it with perfec¬ 
tionism, and fanaticism, and so dismiss it from their 
thought, or if not, to regard it as an unreasonable 
thing to expect of any one ; and they may possibly 
feel a little pride or something that resembles it 
“as the mist resembles the rain,” because they are 
conscious of being sinners every day. 

Now, it is no part of the purpose of these papers 
to advocate the idea that a sinless state is a practi¬ 
cable, or even possible attainment in this life ; but 
they will utterly miss their aim if they do not pro¬ 
duce the impression upon the attentive reader, that 
there is for him, and for every disciple of Christ, 
the possible attainment, of such a state of consecra¬ 
tion to Christ, and harmony of will with him, as 
that one may be consciously set apart—devoted, 
sanctified to him in body, soul and spirit, and be so 
filled with love as to be without fear or a sense of 
condemnation. 

A state of mind and heart, such that one can 
be contented while conscious of daily sin, and be 


162 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


careless in regard to that attainment in holy living 
which is within his reach, seems hardly possible to 
one born of God. Yet it is the state—very nearly 
if not exactly, of multitudes who call themselves 
children of God. 

And yet, probably most of these have been 
changed from what they once were ; and are not 
now living the old life of nature and of rebellion 
against God. Indeed they no doubt feel something 
of real love to God, and some of them become will¬ 
ing and earnest workers in the Lord’s vineyard. 
Are they truly born of God ? This is the problem ; 
how shall we solve it ? 

We have already seen that it is likely to be said 
in explanation of their condition, that regeneration 
is only the very beginning of the new life—is like 
the implantation of a germ—an embryo, and that 
these Christians are only babes and will grow and 
become developed hereafter. 

This is a plausible suggestion, and probably is 
quite commonly accepted as a sufficient solution of 
the difficulty. It is, however, open to two objec¬ 
tions. 

1. The Bible idea of the new birth is, as we have 
tried to show, that it is such a change of the heart, 
of the motive forces and affinities of the soul, that 
one who has experienced it will live a life habitually 
pure, good and godly ; and, 

2. This class of Christians do not, as a rule, 
grow much. They have been in the church—well. 


CONVERSION. 


163 


any number of years, some of them half a century, 
and yet they hardly exhibit more of love, of faith, 
of consecration, of ability and willingness to work 
for the Master, than they did when they were first 
welcomed to the church as young converts. Indeed 
in many cases there seems to be evident and positive 
retrogression. 

No, the problem is not to be solved in this way. 

The difficulty might be evaded or lost sight of, 
if we could drop out of mind the difference between 
the gospel and the law. Indeed this seems to be 
done by many, so that the gospel is looked upon only 
as a modified and easier system of law. Much that 
is called gospel preaching is very legal in its charac¬ 
ter. It is an inculcation of duty, and a setting 
forth of the rewards of duty done, of work performed 
for God, and may be faithful and earnest, and in a 
measure successful ; but it does not grasp the great 
gospel idea, that was revealed to Jeremiah in 
the words,—“ Behold the days come saith the 
Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the 
house of Israel and the house of Judah—I will write 
my law on their hearts and print it on their inward 
parts.” If we had none but a legal gospel, we 
might fairly attribute all Christian shortcomings to 
human frailty, and say when challenged upon the 
point, that the gospel is all right, and God is ready 
to help, but “men are so weak,” and “nobody is 
perfect,” etc. But under the “new Covenant”— 
the Gospel, this does not meet the occasion. 


164 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


In regeneration, God is now writing his law upon 
men’s hearts—that is, he is making them love it and 
keep it; and when any do not love it and keep it, 
we must conclude, either that regeneration is a fail¬ 
ure, or else that in these cases it is not a completed 
work. 

But let us seek a solution of our difficulty in an, 
other direction. It has been already said that the 
class we are studying do appear to be really changed 
from the life of nature. Let us study this change, 
and the resulting life, and try to draw our theory 
from the facts in the case. 

1 . This change , which we call Conversion is com - 
monly preceded hy a sense of guilt , and of condem¬ 
nation by God. 

This is called conviction of sin. It is produced 
by the word of God, applied and demonstrated by 
the Holy Spirit. The purpose for which it is pro¬ 
duced is often mistaken. Sinners often seem to de¬ 
pend upon it as in some sort, a passport to the 
divine favor. They do not really feel that there is 
any merit in it, but they have an indistinct idea 
that somehow, it may propitiate God, and are often 
deeply troubled if they do not seem to themselves to 
feel as deeply as others have expressed, who have 
found hope. 

To one who truly knows God and the way of sal¬ 
vation, it seems strange for any one to imagine that 
any kind of sorrowful feeling would make God more 
propitious to the soul. But repentance has been 


CONVERSION. 


165 


wrongly understood, wrongly preached, often ; and 
then, there is no doubt, in many minds an indis¬ 
tinct and, it may be, half unconscious feeling that 
there is a sort of atonement in pain. Sometimes it 
would seem, from words we hear casually dropped, 
that those who have been a good deal troubled, are 
inclined to blame God, and think him hard and un¬ 
kind, because he does not give them the hope that 
their sins have been forgiven. They think that 
they have suffered enough, have suffered more than 
many others who are rejoicing in hope. It certainly 
seems, that even impenitent and unenlightened 
sinners might know, if they would think, that God 
cannot be propitiated by a sinner’s pain. But, it is 
hard to let go of all dependence upon what self can 
do, and just fall, helpless and condemned, upon the 
mercy of God. 

The truth is, God uses conviction of sin, and 
sorrow of heart, as a means of gently compelling 
men to come to Jesus. He does not care to have 
them suffer, he does care to have them fly from their 
sinful ways to Jesus, and become his trusting ser¬ 
vants. If they will do this without the pain, it is, 
perhaps, just as well, but few will do it. Cases, 
however, may and do occur where men who have 
lived many years in sin and neglect of all God’s 
claims, are led, in some way, to think of the right¬ 
ness and reasonableness of those claims, and of the 
folly of a sinful life, and to make up their mind, 
calmly, and in the same way that they make it up 


166 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


on any matter of business, that they will, to the best 
of their knowledge and ability, become God’s ser¬ 
vants. Such cases are probably rare, but there is 
now and then one that we see coming to God in this 
way, and without any excited or unusual feeling, 
bowing himself to the yoke of Christ, and humbly 
seeking the teaching of God’s word and spirit, going 
on in the path of obedience until he becomes a truly 
consecrated Christian, and a happy Christian. “ If 
any man will do God’s will he shall know of the 
doctrine shall be enlightened and led as he may 
need. The Holy Spirit convinces men of sin, and 
makes them fear the judgment to come, not to make 
them fit to be received by Jesus, but simply to in¬ 
duce them to come to him. 

2. The change we are studying is also usually 
'preceded by earnest and persevering prayer for help 
and pardon. 

It is not God’s way to cast pearls before swine,— 
he will not give the priceless blessings of the gospel 
to those who do not feel the need of them, and will 
not prize them. When he designs to give, he first 
awakens a sense of want and of desire. In one 
whom he is leading to Christ, he will arouse such a 
sense of danger and helplessness, as will almost 
compel a heartfelt cry for assistance, a reaching 
forth of both hands to Jesus. Such a reaching forth 
of the soul may not take the form of vocal prayer, 
it may be like the groping of one in total darkness 
for something to help him—he hardly knows what;' 


CONVERSION. 


167 


it may seem only like a despairing wail, but if di¬ 
rected to God he will hear and understand it. Of 
course there is no merit in such prayer—nor in any 
other, for the matter of that—and God is under no 
obligation to hear it, but he will hear and answer. 
“ They who ask shall receive ; they who seek shall 
find ; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” 
Such prayer is not that of the wicked, of such as 
regard iniquity in their hearts,—which will not be 
heard. 

3. This change is usually preceded , is always 
attended , by a voluntary and conscious decision of 
purpose , which amounts to submission to God’s will , 
and a turning of the soul from sin to God. 

This decision leads to something equivalent to 
Paul’s question, “ Lord, what wilt thou have me to 
do ? ” The occasion which calls it forth will vary as 
individuals and circumstances differ; sometimes 
what seems a very trifling thing will lead to it; a 
mere passing thought may appear to change the cur¬ 
rent of one’s life. 

A young man brought up under religious influ¬ 
ences, had for years been led from time to time to 
think seriously of his need of salvation, but had put 
the subject by and was living a thoughtless sort of 
life. There was to be a school exhibition with some 
dramatic performances, not far from his home. He 
had made an arrangement with an associate to at¬ 
tend it. While on the way from his friend’s home 
to his own, it occurred to his mind that on that 


168 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


evening in an adjoining neighborhood, there was to 
be a meeting where Christians would be gathered, 
praying for the salvation of such as he. The ques¬ 
tion arose; “ Ought I not to go there rather than 
to a place of amusement ?” He was troubled, and 
immediately would have been glad if his engagement 
with his friend had not been made. It would be 
very disagreeable to withdraw it; yet to go might 
be slighting God’s call. He turned aside, and lean¬ 
ing upon a wall by the highway-side thought, and 
then prayed for strength to do right. The decision 
was soon made. He went back and withdrew his 
engagement and in the evening went to the meeting. 
A few days, perhaps a week later he found himself 
looking up to Jesus as his Saviour. That decision 
was a turning point in his life. 

In revivals where inquiry meetings or “anxious 
seats ” are used, these often furnish the occasion for 
such a decision. Probably in thousands of instances 
the decision to rise up and say publicly, either by 
voice or act, “ I desire to become a Christian,” has 
been equivalent to turning to God and has been ac¬ 
cepted by him. 

4. This change is usually attended by a new and 
more or less surprising view of Christ as the 
Saviour. 

The experience of the church teaches us not to 
speak too positively in regard to any feature of the 
work of God in the soul, because cases vary so 
much; and the important thing is, that one does 


CONVERSION. 


169 


truly come to Christ, and not the exercises and 
views which attend his coming. Very commonly 
there is great dependence upon this first view of 
Christ as the Saviour. The moment when it occurs 
is regarded as the instant of regeneration; or, as 
it is usually called, conversion. Certainly it is not 
strange when an awakened sinner burdened with a 
sense of guilt, and feeling himself utterly unworthy 
and hell-deserving, is enabled for the first time to 
look up and see Jesus as the friend of sinners and 
the helper for such as he, and begins to hope that 
his sins are forgiven, that the day when this occurs 
should be marked as a white day in the calendar of 
life. The emotions are apt to be strongly excited, 
and often the change seems like one from death to 
life, almost like one from hell to heaven. 

And yet every pastor or observing Christian, 
knows that there are a multitude of cases where the 
view of the Saviour seems remarkably clear, and the 
feelings are most deeply moved, in which the sub¬ 
sequent life does not prove a changed heart. And 
on the other hand there are many who can remem¬ 
ber no moment of change, no sudden revealing of 
Christ in the soul, who yet give good evidence of 
loving God, and of being his true children. 

Is there then no reliance to be put on what is 
commonly called Christian experience ? Must we 
conclude that all our feelings and thoughts are liable 
to deceive us ; and that we cannot be sure in regard 
to any mental exercises, that they indicate the new- 
8 



170 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


birth ? We certainly must depend chiefly upon the 
fruits borne by the tree or vine, to show its charac¬ 
ter ; we must depend upon the life to prove the 
change of heart. Still, when a sinner has been 
awakened from a careless life, and been convicted 
of his guilt and danger, and has cried to God for 
help, and then has been enabled to look up to Jesus 
as his Saviour, and to hope in him that his sins are 
forgiven ; there is very good reason to believe him 
so changed that he will live a different, and in many 
respects a godly life ; will “ bring forth fruits meet 
for repentance.” 

This brings us to the inquiry ; how do young 
converts and those who stand on the same general 
religious level with them, exhibit “ the fruits of the 
Spirit,”—those traits of the Bible Christian that we 
have seen do characterize the truly regenerated ? 

And again we will follow the list given in Gal. v: 
22, 23, and inquire in regard to 

THEIR LOVE. 

Let it be understood now, in the beginning, that 
our inquiry is not whether young converts exhibit 
these traits, but how they exhibit them. It would 
be folly, or something worse, to deny that young 
converts do generally show that they love God, and 
his cause and people. But we may question the 
permanence and character of their love, it is be¬ 
lieved, without either folly or injustice. If we study 
it carefully, we shall probably find that the love of 


CONVERSION. 


171 


converted persons is in most cases, largely emotional, 
and owes most of its power to control the life to 
some exterior exciting cause. 

First-love is often strong, warm, trustful, and to 
a degree self-sacrificing and benevolent, and may 
rise to ecstasy. The love of revived Christians is 
similar in character. Take the disciple when the 
fire is burning, and he seems—is, often, a power for 
good, and you feel that you have found one whom 
you may fully trust—may lean upon as a pillar in 
the temple of God. Wait until emotional reaction 
takes place, and very likely your strong man, your 
worker and burden-bearer has disappeared ; and in 
place of your pillar, there stands one of the babes 
in Christ, such as Paul called the Corinthians, need¬ 
ing not only to be fed with milk, but often to be 
humored and coaxed and flattered, like a spoiled 
child. No, the average religious life of our day, 
when revivals are not going on, shows a very uncer¬ 
tain if not low type of love. 

It is not consecrating as it should be. 

There are Christians everywhere, probably, who 
love to give and work for the cause of God ; 
who give because they love, but almost everywhere 
we find those who complain and almost groan under 
what they call the burdens of the church. Burdens 
indeed ! Does love complain of burdens and try to 
shirk when something is to be done for the object 
of love ? Many a man who is worth thousands 
thinks it hard to pay a few dollars for the home ex- 


172 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


penses of his church, and if he gives a dollar a year 
to send the gospel to the heathen, thinks he has 
been quite benevolent. Many a woman can pay 
nothing for the cause of Christ, and yet can find a 
good many dollars if a fancy in dress or jewelry is 
to be gratified. Families too poor to have even a 
quarter of a dollar for religious purposes, can all go 
to see every traveling circus that comes around. 

It is usually much easier to get money for things 
connected with the church, if some form of selfish¬ 
ness can be appealed to. To have the finest meet¬ 
ing-house, the tallest spire, the best organ, the 
most popular preacher or the best choir in town, 
will loosen the strings of purses that had else 
been tightly closed. The honor of being called 
liberal will sometimes work wonders. Religious 
lotteries and suppers with their various concomi¬ 
tants will draw money from professedly religious 
people, when love alone will call in vain. 

It has been often said in recent years that there 
were fewer of the sons of the church coming into 
the ministry than formerly; also, that the reason 
was that ministers were so poorly paid. 

Other professions are said to be more lucrative 
and so more attractive. There are plenty of in¬ 
stances no doubt where churches are shamefully 
penurious and neglectful of their pastors. But the 
most painful thing about it is, the inference which 
we must draw, that Christian young men are stand¬ 
ing, looking at the ministry as a profession and 


CONVERSION. 


173 


weighing their chances for a good position, and a 
competence if they enter it, and are not ashamed of 
doing so. 

It seems hardly to be thought that love to God 
and to the souls of men is a sufficient motive to lead 
one to give himself to the work of God, at any sac¬ 
rifice. Thoughts on this point lead to the remark 
that, 

The worship of the church shows her love to he 
imperfect. 

In some cases—would God there were not many 
such—it is too evident that pastors are sought for 
who possess brilliant and attractive gifts, while very 
little thought is given to their spiritual knowledge, 
or the fulness of their union with God. This being 
the case, it will be strange if some, at least, among 
the ministers are not more anxious to be pulpit ora¬ 
tors than to feed the flock of God with “ the sincere 
milk of the word ; ” strange, if sermons do not be¬ 
come brilliant essays—where they can, and the public 
prayers, “eloquent addresses to the Deity”—or to 
the audience. Equally strange if the songs of Zion 
do not become performances of the choir, and if the 
aesthetic and the sentimental do not swallow up de¬ 
votion ; the pulpit and the pews backsliding from 
God together. 

Nor may the smaller and weaker churches and 
ministers take the credit to themselves that this 
state of things exists only among the wealthier 
churches and more popular ministers. Most of us 


174 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


feel, more or less, the same temptations, and may be 
—according to our ability—following in the same 
track. The large and wealthy city church appears 
little more likely to be formal and loveless in her 
worship than the little hamlet church where poverty 
only, very likely, prevents the imitation of city 
customs. 

Is it not largely to provide a remedy for this 
state of things that so much dependence has come 
to be put upon the so called revival meetings of this 
time ? Is it not a tacit confession of the want of 
power in ordinary church worship that “Evangel¬ 
ists” must be called in and “gospel meetings” held, 
and “Gospel Hymns” sung; just as though the 
ordinary meetings of the church were not gospel 
meetings, and no special blessing was to be expected 
through them. 

0, if the time ever comes, when Christians gener¬ 
ally, and habitually meet on Lord’s day and at other 
times simply and in earnest to worship God, then 
he will come into the midst of them and give them 
power to prevail over all their difficulties. 

The closets, and to an extent the family altars of 
Christian people must tell their story to conscience 
and God ; we cannot scrutinize them ; and yet we 
may be sure that where there is earnest and habitual 
worship in closets and homes, there will be public 
worship that shall be in spirit and in truth. Loving 
communion with God will make itself felt beyond 
the place and hour of prayer. 


CONVERSION. 


175 


The type of love that we see commonly in the 
church does not appear to arise from assimilation 
to God. 

God is loved, but he seems to be loved chiefly 
because he is our benefactor. “ We love him be¬ 
cause he first loved us.” This means with many, 
it is believed, we love him because he has been good 
to us, loves us, and is going to save us. It follows, 
as a matter of course, when doubts and darkness 
come, and the assurance of God’s love is lost, that 
we lose in a great measure the sense of love to him. 
Such love must of necessity be intermittent and 
untrustworthy. 

Brotherly love. “ We know that we have passed 
from death unto life because we love the brethren.” 

Now, people who love each other are likely to 
love each other’s society and to seek it; they are 
usually careful of each other’s feelings, and each is 
pained by the other’s sorrow : they are patient of 
the faults of those they love, and disposed to be 
silent in regard to them : the happiness and pros¬ 
perity of loved ones will be their joy and will be 
aided by them if possible. 

Do we see these signs of love manifested among 
Christians simply because they are Christians ? 
Sometimes, certainly. But we also see much that is 
contrary to love. Christ’s professed followers are 
everywhere divided into sects and parties, and be¬ 
tween these there is much of unloving rivalry. Not 
seldom, there arise jealousies and strife, that to a 


176 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


looker-on seems unholy and hateful. Ministers and 
denominational leaders, in order to build up their 
church or party, resort to very questionable means. 

Members of the same church do not always show 
love for each other. There is many a church that 
is powerless for good to-day, because there is 
44 hatred, variation, wrath and strife ” among the 
members. And this has more often than otherwise 
grown out of some very small thing. By a careless 
word somebody’s tongue has set on fire the course 
of nature, and the tale-bearer’s tongue, 44 set on fire 
of hell,” has helped on the flame, until there seems 
nothing left in that Zion but ashes and bitter dust. 

This sad picture might be extended far, but we 
turn from it gladly to inquire in regard to 

JOY 

as a trait of those we call converted. 

Young converts are often heard to say something 
like this, 44 1 have felt more real joy since I found 
Jesus than in all my life before.” What they say is 
probably true. The joys of earth are seldom quite 
satisfying,—There are thorns around most earthly 
roses ; and bitter dregs that must be swallowed in 
most cups of pleasure. And when a soul first 
grasps its new-born hope, and looks up to Grod as a 
friend, and to Jesus as a loving Saviour, and feels 
in his heart the glow of love, and the blessedness of 
trust, it would be strange if he did not feel a joy 
that would make all earthly joys grow pale, and 


CONVERSION. 


177 


seem worthless in comparison with it. This joy sat¬ 
isfies the soul as no earthly joy can. He who has 
true joy in God is to a great extent independent of 
other sources of pleasure. 

But it cannot be denied that this joy does not, 
in many cases prove permanent. We must admit 
that often the one who has told us of this great and 
unequaled joy, is found before very long turning 
back to worldly, and it may be sinful pleasures. 
How is this ? unbelievers notice the fact and urge it 
against the reality of the New Birth. How shall we 
explain it ? 

Is not this the truth in the case ? The new-born 
joy of converts—like their love—is largely emotional. 
It is a mood—“a frame of mind” which, excited 
partly by causes exterior to themselves, is liable to 
pass away with changing circumstances. They re¬ 
joice because they believe their sins forgiven, be¬ 
cause they have found the pearl of great price. 
They think God loves them, they are sure that 
Christians love them. If now they are from any 
cause led to doubt God’s love and the reality of the 
change in them, a cloud will come over them which 
will blot out all their joy in darkness. The joy of 
which they told was real, but like a pleasant meal 
eaten yesterday it does not satisfy the craving of to¬ 
day, and so the hungry soul seeks other food. 

There is another thing about this evanescent 
joy. The Holy Spirit comes to the hearts of con¬ 
verted persons and sheds a joy upon them that is 
8 * 


178 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


due to him alone. But he does not always stay. 
If the heart and life be not wholly opened to his 
control; if self strives to sit upon the throne in the 
soul with God ; if the will rises up against God’s 
will; if he be not permitted to drive out all the 
buyers and sellers, and remove the tables of the 
money-changers from the temple of the heart, his 
visit will be short, and when he goes, joy will go, 
and a sense of condemnation and estrangement from 
God will come. He may come back—thank God, 
he does come back, to many of us again and again, 
comes courting the love and confidence of the poor 
wayward soul, and when he comes there is a revival 
in one heart at least. 


PEACE 

stands next in the list of the fruits of the Spirit. 

Some years ago the writer came into a new ex¬ 
perience of God’s peace. It was in connection with 
the revealing of Christ in his soul as sanctifier and 
keeper, and was a new as well as most blessed expe¬ 
rience. The love and joy of that time were most 
precious, but they were not so new—so unlike what 
he had known before. The peace—so deep, so full, 
so indescribable—because passing all understanding 
—was new, and in its perfect restfulness was one of 
the most marked features of the experience. Nega¬ 
tive peace—the absence of enmity toward both God 
and man was not new ; that had been in a good de¬ 
gree slain at his conversion years before. But all 


CONVERSION. 


179 


along there had been a lack of restful peace. Even in 
times of revival, when God seemed nearest and most 
a friend, there was still an uneasy sense of danger, 
a feeling that at any moment the spirit of love and 
joy might take wing and fly away. There was not 
a sense of identity of interest, of oneness with God. 
Self still rose up, opposed in many things to God’s 
will. The law in his members warring against the 
law of his mind, destroyed peace, and ofttimes ex¬ 
torted from him the despairing wail, 44 0, wretched 
man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body 
of this death ?” 

Somewhat careful observation, extending over 
many years, has led to the full conviction that his 
case was no uncommon one. Indeed, most Chris¬ 
tian people seem to lack a reposeful feeling in regard 
to their relations with God. The thought is, if I 
am faithful I shall be happy and safe ; but how to 
be faithful—that is the question. Most of us learn 
our own weakness so soon and so well that however 
often we may make good resolutions we hardly ex¬ 
pect to do otherwise than break them, and fail and 
sin. We understand the seventh of Romans well, 
the eighth, not so well. We live in warfare and in 
defeat, not in victory and peace. 

When the Holy Spirit comes as the abiding, in¬ 
dwelling keeper of the heart, peace comes. His 
presence gives such a sense of oneness with God, 
such loss of self in God, that the ineffable peace in 
which God dwells becomes infused through all the 


180 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


soul, filling it according to its measure. Then the 
uniform testimony is “I never knew peace—perfect 
peace—before.” 

It is worthy of note here that the Bible speaks 
of God’s peace as a controlling, masterful thing in 
the heart where it is. “Let the peace of God rule 
in your hearts.” “The peace of God which passeth 
all understanding shall Iceep your hearts and minds 
through Christ Jesus.” 

We conclude that if God’s peace is in us, we 
shall be men of peace, peace-lovers and peace-mak¬ 
ers. The children of Zion are not all such. 

LONG-SUFFERING, GENTLENESS, GOODNESS. 

These traits of regenerate character we must pass 
with but a brief remark. They are not so impor¬ 
tant as indicating one’s state because they are, in a 
degree, natural traits, and are exhibited by the im¬ 
penitent often in a good degree. We shall of course 
find them among Christian people. But if we look 
for them, we shall probably be saddened by finding 
that in very many cases the naturally quick-tem¬ 
pered, remain impatient; the rough and ungentle 
are still harsh in word and manner, regardless of 
the feelings of others ; and the selfish and cruel 
remain grasping and oppressive. There can be no 
doubt that many are hindered from feeling the 
claims of religion by the ungracious lives of those 
who in religious meetings may talk of “ inward joys 
and sins forgiven.” 


CONVERSION, 


181 


FAITH. 

This element of Christian character is, as we 
have seen, the very foundation of it. One cannot 
begin to be a Christian without faith ; and the char¬ 
acter of one’s faith will indicate his progress and 
attainment in the divine life. One who is truly 
converted must believe in Christ, must exercise a 
true faith in him, there is no doubt of that. But it 
is very possible that his faith may not be a full one 
—a faith like a grain of mustard seed, round, full, 
warm, active, perfect. Instead, it is apt to have 
flat sides and defective places, and to grasp the 
Saviour in only part of his relations to the soul. 

It has been already remarked that God’s usual 
method in bestowing spiritual blessings is to give 
only to supply a felt want, and in answer to believ¬ 
ing prayer. 

Now when an awakened, convicted sinner comes 
to God through Christ, what he feels the need of— 
his great want, is the forgiveness of his sins. He 
commonly has but little fear but that if he can be 
forgiven, it will be easy for him to live a Christian 
life and remain in God’s favor. Few at conversion 
know much of “ the plague of their own hearts,” 
and of their utter weakness and inability to live holy 
lives. Forgiveness is everything to them ; and when 
Jesus has been revealed to them as the one who can 
and does forgive their sins, it is enough; it is all 
the salvation they need. Nor is this trust in Christ \ 


182 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


for pardon something which is likely to soon pass 
away. The truth that Jesus Christ has power 
on earth to forgive sin is so written upon the heart 
of the truly converted one, that he will be little 
likely to forget it. So far his faith may be said to 
be full. It beholds the lamb of God. It feeds upon 
him as the true paschal lamb. It grasps him as 
friend and redeemer. 

But something more is needful in order that the 
convert become a developed Christian. If he stops 
here as many do, he will be like those Galatians, 
who having begun in the Spirit were found striving 
to be made perfect by the flesh, for whom Paul said 
he travailed in birth again till Christ be formed with¬ 
in them. 

The truth is that if at his conversion he had 
heard Christ preached ever so plainly, as the sanc¬ 
tifier and keeper of the soul, he would not probably 
have taken hold of him as such, because he had not 
yet learned his need of a keeper and sanctifier. But 
it happens that very often he is not so preached. 
The preacher may know as little of him in these 
relations as the neophyte himself. A great deal of 
the religious teaching of the church is defective in 
regard to Christ. 

IIow will it be—when after months—years it 
may be, of painful experience of his own weakness 
and utter inability to keep himself in the love of 
God ; when after resolutions made again and again, 
and many prayers and tears over failure, the disci- 


CONVERSION. 


183 


pie finds himself weak as ever, looking around for 
help and guidance—will he be told of the Spirit of 
Christ given and appointed to be the indwelling and 
all powerful keeper of the heart ? Probably not; 
but instead, that all Christians have the same 
trouble, and that he must struggle and fight on till 
death, and then he will be free from all sin. Human 
effort and death, these are the helpers—the sanc¬ 
tifiers offered him. 

Surely, it will not be strange if, under such cir¬ 
cumstances, there shall be failure to receive the 
grace that is sufficient, and take hold of the strength 
that is made perfect in weakness. It is not strange 
that the faith of the church is weak in regard to 
sanctification and the Christian life. 

There is another direction in which the faith of 
the church is defective. There must be wide-spread 
failure to accept Christ as our Prophet—our author¬ 
itative teacher. 

Everywhere the people of God are divided up 
into sects and parties, manifesting often a good deal 
of party spirit; and when first love subsides, con¬ 
verts often exhibit a good deal of self-will in regard 
to what they receive as truth. There is not, it is 
true, the amount of controversy between Christians 
of different names that there used to be, but that 
may be from a spirit like that of Gallic—“ caring 
for none of these things,” rather than because there 
is more of docility, and the little child-like spirit 
that delights in being led in all things by the Master. 


184 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT 


There is much said about Christian union, but the 
common thought seems to be that union must come 
by compromise, and a mutual surrender of convic¬ 
tions and beliefs more or less important. True 
union will hardly come in that way. It will come, 
when the Holy Spirit shall be so poured out that 
the mass of Christian people shall be converted 
anew, and become such little children as the disci¬ 
ples became on the day of Pentecost. Then the 
barriers that education, and prejudice, and party- 
spirit, and self-will, have built will be swept away, 
and the multitude that believe will be of one heart 
and of one soul and none will say that the things 
that he possesses are his own. 

Again,—the faith of the church seems defective 
in its grasp of Christ as King and Master. 

There is everywhere a want of ability to say from 
the heart, 44 Not my will but thine, 0 God, be done.” 
We all profess to believe that 44 all things shall work 
together for good to them who love God,” but there 
is much of fretfulness and repining instead of hum¬ 
ble and sweet acquiescence when God’s providence 
seems adverse and afflictive. 

There is also a very visible lack of deference to 
God’s will in choosing our course and pursuits in 
life. Plans are laid, and arrangements entered into, 
without inquiring whether Jesus will approve. 
Bargains are made with but little reference to the 
Golden Rule. Pleasures are sought which are felt to 
be questionable, if not sinful, and which would have 
6 


CONVERSION. 


185 


been shunned when first-love was warm, and faith 
saw Jesus near. 

So, too, plain teachings, and even commands of 
God are disregarded if pride or self-interest conflict 
with them. Christians will go to meeting and sing 
loudly, “ Nearer my God to thee, nearer to thee, 
Even though it be a cross that raiseth me,” and then 
if a cross is laid in their way they will avert their 
faces and pass by on the other side. 

But, once more,—the faith of young converts, 
and may we not say of Christians generally? is ex¬ 
ceedingly dependent on outward circumstances, on 
what they can see. 

People generally trust God well when the pros¬ 
pect before them is bright and promising,—not so 
well when darkness and gloom enshroud them. If 
a prayer-meeting be more than usually full and in¬ 
teresting, we are likely to hear, at once, prophecies 
of a revival, and talk of strong faith in God. Next 
week when it is thin and dull, the faith has all 
evaporated. Christian farmers trust God very well 
when the weather is fine and crop prospects good. 
Even ministers seem to have more faith when a good 
salary is pledged to them, than when they have 
nothing but God’s naked promise to look to. 

A good illustration of this kind of faith is given 
in the account of Peter’s walking on the sea. He 
saw the Master on the water, saw that the unstable, 
restless waves were like a crystal pavement under his 
feet, and was inspired, at once, with such confidence 


186 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


in his power as to be willing at his bidding to go and 
walk by his side. But alas! his faith depended upon 
sight, and when the wind blew hard, and a great 
wave rose between him and the Lord it failed and 
he began to sink. So afterwards, when the disciples 
were gathered around Jesus in the garden, they had 
strong faith in him ; they had witnessed many exhibi¬ 
tions of his power; they did not doubt his Messiahship 
nor his ability to foil his cruel foes ; yet their faith 
depended upon seeing the continued exercise of his 
power, and when they saw him in the hands of the 
mob, led away unresisting, they all forsook him and 
fled, and the bold and confident Peter is soon swear¬ 
ing that he does not know any such man as Jesus 
of Nazareth. 

But there came a change to Peter and the others. 
The day of Pentecost brought the gift of the Holy 
Ghost. Then Christ came as he had promised, not 
to be with, but to be in them. From that time on¬ 
ward their faith had its sufficient source within 
themselves, and was not dependent upon sight 
nor upon outward circumstances. Henceforth it 
seemed as natural to them to trust God as to 
breathe. God grant that such a change may come 
to all of us. 

Of course a faith that is dependent upon sight 
must be always weak and fluctuating. It is not the 
sort that can remove mountains, or plant sycamine 
trees in the sea. There is in it neither power nor 
rest in any considerable degree; and it is not too 


CONVERSION . 


18? 


much to say that Zion is paralyzed by the unbelief 
of her children. 

MEEKNESS AND TEMPERANCE. 

These two complete the list of the fruits of the 
Spirit. 

We have already seen that those who are fully 
born of the Spirit will exhibit them as characteristic 
traits. How are they exhibited in the current 
Christian life of the church ? 

If we look for meekness we shall find some who 
are truly meek. We shall also find many who are 
not. The conviction will probably grow upon us 
that self is the important thing with most. Few 
will bear to have their self-love wounded. Churches 
are being torn asunder all the time because some¬ 
body’s feelings have been hurt. Or, if it do not go 
so far as that, there is jealousy and coldness separa¬ 
ting those who ought to be working together in 
love, and thus destroying their power for good. 

In the matter of temperance we shall find that 
while most in this day are technically temperate— 
that is, are not addicted to intoxicating drinks— 
there are very many who do not adopt Paul’s rule 
and keep their body under and bring it into subjec¬ 
tion. Many are really the slaves of tobacco ; many 
are under bondage to tea and coffee ; many gratify 
their senses in other ways to the extent of becoming 
sensual; and may we not say that most are con¬ 
trolled largely, even in their religious life, by their 


188 BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 

likes and dislikes ? If they want to do a thing they 
are apt to do it if they can, and if they don’t want 
to—duty often calls in vain. 

VICTORY OVER THE WORLD. 

In another place the attempt has been made 
to show what overcoming the world means, also 
that one truly born of God, one who “ believes unto 
righteousness,” will win the victory. Now the ques¬ 
tion is, are the mass of church members that we 
know of so victorious as to prove their divine pa¬ 
rentage ? 

If we look into business matters shall we find 
that they stand decidedly higher in the scale of in¬ 
tegrity and trustworthiness than others ? The 
world’s motto is, “ Take care of number one;” 
Christ’s rule is. “ Whatsoever ye would that men 
should do to you, do ye even so to them.” Which 
is most followed ? Do business men habitually 
trust the honor and honesty of church members 
more than that of others ? Do they pay their debts 
better ? Are they very much less greedy for gain ? 
Are they less anxious for display; less lavish in 
spending money on dress and equipage ? Can they 
more readily refuse to obey the dictates of fashion ? 
Theoretically those who profess religion renounce 
the pomps and vanities of the world and adopt the 
Golden Kule as their motto ; practically, we all know 
that they do no such thing. The Flora McFlim- 
seys of city and country, and the defaulters and 


CONVERSION. 


189 


swindlers in business seem almost as likely to be in 
the church as out of it. 

Now and then the world grows religious. There 
comes a revival—or the Lent-season sets in, then 
these Christians are religious too. The card-tables 
are put away, dancing-parties are postponed, and 
religious zeal becomes quite noticeable. But, alas ! 
revivals and Lent do not last all the year. The tide 
of religion is soon at its ebb, and the flood of world¬ 
liness comes swirling in. Then the flood-wood is 
borne away and only a few are left to stand (i like 
trees planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth 
fruit in its season, and their leaves perpetually 
green.” 

There are some who overcome the world—the 
many appear to be very much under its control. 

THE WITNESS OF THE SPIKIT. 

Does the Spirit bear witness with our spirits that 
we are born of God ? Does he give us blessed as¬ 
surance that we are Christ’s and he ours for time 
and eternity ? Most assuredly he does if he abides 
in us. 

Well then do Christian people generally feel pre¬ 
pared for death, so that they feel no fear of what 
comes after death ? Are they so conscious of union 
with Christ as to be at rest in regard to their welfare 
for eternity ? Is it not true, that in most cases 
there is a felt need of a deeper change than they 
have yet experienced, or else a hope that they may 


190 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


become so revived and so faithful to duty as to gain 
assurance of the divine favor ? Few people probably 
depend upon what they have done as a ground of the 
divine favor, but very many seem to depend upon 
what they are going to do. Is there much differ¬ 
ence ? If there is, the latter is not the better trust. 
Satan has no better snare for souls than the hope of 
future repentance and faithfulness. 

It is an idea that seems somewhat common, that 
Christians ripen for heaven before the time comes 
for them to die ; and there are, no doubt, many 
cases in which this idea seems justified. But no 
one who is conscious of living in sin and estrange¬ 
ment from God, habitually, has any right to build 
a hope on this. 

CONTINUANCE OF LIFE. 

How do they hold out ? “ Ye did run well; who 
did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth.” 

We have seen that according to the word of God 
those who are born of God will strive to live, and 
will continue to live the new life. Now, what¬ 
ever we may think of “ falling from grace,” 
whether we may be Arminians or Calvinists, we 
shall none of us deny that in and around all the 
churches there is a vast deal that looks like it. 
Thickly all around our churches, stand those who 
were once rejoiced over as converts, but now have 
“fallen out by the way.” And in the churches are , 
many who do little less than “ crucify to themselves 


CONVERSION. 


191 


the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open 
shame.” Others there are, who though still show¬ 
ing occasionally signs of life, are apparently nearly 
dead, are at the least “lukewarm,” having “left 
their first love.” These last are often self-compla¬ 
cent, careless, easy-going ones; they are in the 
church, they have been “ saved,” and “ don’t see but 
they are about as good as other folks ;” they have no 
gifts for active service, if things do not go on well 
somebody else is to blame, not themselves ; they 
have no responsibility for the church and cause of 
God ; evidently they are willing to go to heaven if 
the tide, and the oars of the earnest ones shall carry 
them there, but do not expect to take much trouble 
for it. 

Are they “saved ?”—nay verily. Will they be 
at last ? Who will tell us ? Some of them may 
seek and find the way of righteousness. The Holy 
Spirit may be received as the abiding and controll¬ 
ing keeper of the soul. Many will live on as they 
are, till death comes and takes them away. On a 
dying bed they may drop some word of willingness 
to go, or of submission to what is inevitable, and 
friends will gather up the straws of hope, and at the 
funeral, the kind-hearted minister will try to say all 
the hopeful words he can, and they will be talked 
of as gone to heaven. 

Let us not try to draw aside the veil that hides 
from us the world of the dead. Let us be hopeful 
as we may for those who have gone on before. But 


192 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


let us not forget that “without holiness no man 
shall see the Lord,”—that unless we are so born of 
God that his life is in us controlling us, we have 
no promise of eternal life. 

“ Let us give diligence to make our calling and 
election sure.” Let us yield to the drawing of the 
Father, and the gentle warnings and persuasion of 
the Spirit, working out our own salvation, encour¬ 
aged and made glad by the assurance that it is God 
that worketh in us, both to will and to do of his 
good pleasure, and praying if we can with quaint 
John Berridge, 

“ Jesus, cast a look on me! 

Give me sweet simplicity, 

Make me poor and lay me low. 

Seeking only thee to know. 

“ Weaned from my lordly self, 

Weaned from the miser’s pelf, 

Weaned from the scorner’s ways, 

Weaned from the lust of praise. 

“All that feeds my busy pride, 

Cast it ever more aside ; 

Bid my will to thine submit. 

Lay me humbly at thy feet. 

“ Make me like a little child, 

Of my strength and wisdom spoiled. 

Seeing only in thy light. 

Walking only in thy might. 


CONVERSION. 


** Leaning only on tliy breast, 
Where a weary soul may rest; 
Feeling well the peace of God 
Flowing from thy gracious blood 1 


“ In this posture let me live 
And hosannas daily give, 
In this temper let me die, 
And hosannas ever cry.” 


IX. 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 

“ To the law and to the testimony ; if they speak not ac¬ 
cording to this word it is because there is no light in them.” 

Isa. viii. 20. 

Aky discussion of the subject of regeneration 
must, necessarily, be defective if it does not include 
a careful and candid exigesis of John iii : 5, 
“ Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be 
born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter 
into the Kingdom of God.” There is no other pas¬ 
sage in the Word of God that sustains so close and 
vital a relation to the subject. It is one of the 
solemn and emphatic utterances of Jesus in which 
every word was weighed. It will not do to pass over 
it lightly. 

Nor is the study of it less necessary because there 
appear to be difficulties in explaining it. 

The chief trouble is with the phrase “ born of 
water.” And this is largely because important 
dogmas in theology have been made to depend upon 
the interpretation put upon it. 

At a very early day,—soon after the time of the 
apostles, indeed,—it came to be held by very many 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


195 


Christian teachers that to be “born of water” was 
to be baptized. We have already seen—in the essay 
on Ritual Regeneration—that so early as the time 
of Irenaeus regeneration and baptism had become 
not only connected but confounded with each other 
in the thought of the church. They have, to a 
great extent, remained so ever since. If the opinion 
of very many able and learned theologians could 
have established baptismal-regeneration as a doctrine 
of the gospel, it would have been beyond controversy 
long ago. 

Let us be glad and rejoice that we are not de¬ 
pendent for our knowledge of God’s will upon 
church fathers, of old or more recent days; but 
have the “living oracles,” to which we may ever go, 
and which, on all important points, are so plain that 
he who runs may read, and a wayfaring man, though 
not wise, need not mistake his path. 

But in studying commentaries, and expositions 
of this text, we find that it is not ritualists and be¬ 
lievers in baptismal-regeneration alone, who think 
that our Lord referred in some way to baptism 
when he used this phrase. There are many who 
stand high in denominations deemed especially 
evangelical who take this ground. They do not 
believe in baptismal-regeneration. Oh no !—but 
they cannot understand what Jesus meant, if he did 
not in some way refer to baptism. 

These teachers, in order to explain the text, usu¬ 
ally tell us that the kingdom of God, as spoken of 


196 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


here, must be the same thing as “the visible 
church” and that as baptism is the outward and 
visible door into the church, so it is into the king¬ 
dom of God. This is a somewhat plausible explan¬ 
ation :—is it the true one ? 

There are certainly difficulties about it which we 
may not overlook. If we adopt it, how shall we 
explain the words of Jesus in Luke xvii. 20, 21. 
“ The kingdom of God cometh not with observa¬ 
tion ; neither shall they say, lo here ! or lo there ! 
for behold the kingdom of God is within you ?” 
Certainly, if baptism is the door into the church, 
and so, is the ceremony of naturalization into the 
kingdom, the coming and spread of the kingdom can 
be observed, and Jesus must have been mistaken. 

Again,—what shall we say of such cases as 
Simon Magus, Ananias and Sapphira and their kind ? 
They were in the visible church,—were they really in 
the kingdom ? 

And what of the man who was crucified by the 
side of Jesus, who showed more true faith in him 
than any of those who had been his chosen compan¬ 
ions, and who received the promise of Paradise ? He 
could hardly be supposed to be in the church, was 
he therefore not in the kingdom ? 

And again, is being in the kingdom equivalent 
to being saved, or is it not ? 

If it is, and the visible church is the kingdom, 
then there is small hope for those who are unbap¬ 
tized, and so not in the church, however holy and 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


197 


Christlike they may be ; and on the other hand many 
are likely to be saved who are well nigh as unchrist- 
like as possible. 

But if not, how shall we explain such passages as 
Mark ix. 47 ? “And if thine eye offend thee, pluck 
it out, it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom 
of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast 
into hell-fire.” Did Jesus mean to say it is better 
to enter into the visible church with one eye, than 
having two to be cast into hell ? 

These are by no means all the puzzling questions 
that will arise under this interpretation. But before 
we look for more we may as well try to define 

THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 

Perhaps we shall not find this a very easy task. 

If we were ritualists, either Romanists or high- 
churchmen, we should be able to do it readily ; we 
should then know just what the church is, and 
where to find it. Being neither one of these, we 
may find our task a hard one. 

If the question were, what is a church ? the 
etymology of the word would tell us,—a house of 
the Lord. Then a meeting-house, a house set apart 
for the service of the Lord may be properly called a 
church. Also, because we have assurance that 
wherever Christians meet in the name of their 
Master he will come and abide in the midst of them, 
therefore a congregation of believers gathered in 
one place to worship God is truly a church. It is 


198 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


easy enough then to see what a visible church may 
he, but the church—what is that ? 

It w 7 ill not do to say that it is the great body of 
true believers, the body that in Heb. xii. 23, is called 
44 The general assembly and church of the first-born, 
which are written in heaven,” because that body, 
that church is, certainly, not in any true sense visi¬ 
ble on earth. There is no list of its membership 
kept this side of heaven. No man may mark its 
boundaries, and say who is in it, and who is not. 
Into it no one is initiated by any visible ceremony. 
Baptism is no door into it; for, beyond doubt, mul¬ 
titudes are in it who have never been baptized, and 
other multitudes have been baptized, who know 
nothing of its blessed privileges. 

But is it the church spoken of in Eph. i. 22, 23, 
and Col. i. 18, which is there called the body of 
Christ ? 

Possibly some who are not ritualists will be in¬ 
clined to answer affirmatively here. But let us 
think. Christ is not here bodily and visibly, to be 
the head of any sort of organization. If there be 
any union between him and his followers on earth 
corresponding to the vital union between the head 
of a man and his body, it must be a spiritual union, 
and must imply positive spiritual life in those who 
are connected with him as members. Now will it 
do to predicate this of the mass of professedly Chris¬ 
tian people in the world ? Will it do to assert it of 
the aggregate membership of even the churches that 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


199 


lay highest claims to be called evangelical ? To ask 
this question is to answer it. Christ speaks of fruit¬ 
less branches of the vine, to which he compares 
himself, that will be cut off and burned, but he 
does not speak of amputating members of his body. 

No, no, the church which is the body of Christ 
must be the same as “the church of the first-born.” 
Its members are those whose names are written in 
the Lamb’s Book of Life. 

If we continue our search for a definition of the 
phrase “ the visible church ” we shall probably come 
to the conclusion that it is one of those loose expres¬ 
sions which are very convenient to use, but which 
are absolutely incapable of being defined. This one 
it is not easy to dispense with in the common lan¬ 
guage of the religious world ; but each man uses it 
as pleases himself, and generally, among anti-ritual¬ 
ists—the idea which it represents is too vague to 
allow of precise statement. 

Surely it will not do to say that the Kingdom 
of God spoken of by the Master in the text we are 
studying, is the same thing as the visible church. 

But what then is 

THE KINGDOM OF GOD ? 

The question must not be answered hastily or 
carelessly; because it looks very much as though 
entering into the Kingdom was in the mind of 
Christ equivalent to being saved, and that our des¬ 
tiny for eternity depended upon our being in it. 


200 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


The terms kingdom of God, kingdom of Christ, 
and kingdom of heaven, are used quite often in the 
New Testament and are used in that free sort of way 
which renders it necessary, usually, to study the 
connection in order to be sure of what may be 
meant. Thus, in Matt, viii, 11, Jesus says, “ That 
many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit 
down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the king¬ 
dom of heaven.” Here the kingdom must mean 
heaven. But in Matt, xiii, the kingdom of heaven 
is compared in its growth to a mustard plant, and 
to leaven, and of course must be on earth. Then 
in Matt. iv. 17, we read that “Jesus began to 
preach and to say, Bepent for the kingdom of hea¬ 
ven is at hand ; while in Matt. xi. 12, he says, 
“From the days of John the Baptist until now the 
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the vio¬ 
lent take it by force.” Implying that it had already 
come. 

Again, sometimes there seems a difference be¬ 
tween the kingdom of God and the kingdom of 
heaven, while at other times they evidently mean 
the same thing and are used interchangeably. 

Perhaps it will help us to get at the root of the 
matter if we observe that each and all of these terms 
must be understood in a figurative sense. God and 
Christ have no literal kingdom in this world, and, 
notwithstanding the supposed proof brought forward 
by our premillennial brethren, we must believe never 
will have. God is never called a king in the Scrip- 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


201 


tures until the time of David. Then all ideas of 
governmental power and right began to gather and 
crystalize around the king, and most naturally God 
would become in the mind of his servants the King 
of kings. If there had been around the writers of 
Scripture no earthly kings we should never have 
heard of the kingdom of God. 

If now we study carefully the use of this term 
and its correlatives we shall find that many of them 
are designed to attribute to God personal power and 
glory. This is noticeably the case with their use in 
the Psalms. Others convey the idea of force, with¬ 
out seeming to include that of personality. Many 
passages in the New Testament would come into this 
class ; but the most notable example recollected is in 
the vision of Nebuchadnezzar as interpreted by 
Daniel. There the kingdom which the God of 
heaven would set up, and which probably no one 
doubts was the kingdom of Messiah, was represented 
by a fragment of mountain rock, unshaped by hu¬ 
man hands, that gathered to itself size and force by 
accretion or interior development as it moved, until 
it became a mountain occupying the whole earth. 
There is no room here for the thought of the or¬ 
ganization and machinery of a human kingdom ; no 
suggestion of a seat of government, or of officers, 
or even of a personal king. The mountain rock 
means force, and has its counterpart in that power 
which is felt wherever the gospel comes, that makes 
all of the old despotisms and organized forms of 
9 * 


202 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


selfish government,—government for the sake of 
the rulers and not of the people, crumble and 
tumble down. The mountain does not fill the 
earth yet, but who that has watched its progress 
during the last few years, if he cares for human 
well-being, can help but thank God and take 
courage. 

This kingdom may be thought of as aggressive 
and militant. Its progress must be through strug¬ 
gles and battles, with sometimes apparent defeat, 
and sometimes victory. Those who belong to Jesus 
are soldiers in its army, though the weapons of their 
warfare are not carnal, and they fight not against 
flesh and blood, and find the arena of their battles 
chiefly in their own hearts. For the progress of 
this kingdom we pray when we say, 44 Thy kingdom 
come.’’ In its beneficent influence it grows like the 
mustard plant, becoming a sheltering tree, and 
spreads from heart to heart with vitalizing power as 
the leaven spreads in the meal. An important fea¬ 
ture of it is exhibited in the parable of the tares of 
the field. The righteous and the wicked are to 
grow mingled in it as the wheat and tares grow to¬ 
gether in the field of the farmer. It is this king¬ 
dom which, when the end comes and Christ shall 
have put down all rule and authority and power, 
when all enemies are put under his feet, will be 
given up to the Father. 

There remains still another class of texts in 
which the dominant idea seems to be that protection 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


203 


and privilege are connected with entering into the 
kingdom. 

Of this class there is no better representative 
text than the one we are studying, “ Except a man 
be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter 
into the kingdom of God.” 

Here the idea of entering into the kingdom 
must be much the same as of becoming a citizen of 
the kingdom, and so becoming entitled to certain 
rights and privileges Under it. How it will be rec¬ 
ollected that the people to whom Jesus preached 
lived under the Roman government, and had 
abundant opportunity to see that to be in the Ro¬ 
man kingdom, that is, to be a Roman citizen, was 
worth something. They could not help knowing 
that the poorest and meanest Roman citizen was en¬ 
titled to, and received protection and privilege be¬ 
yond even the wealthiest and noblest of those who 
were not Romans. When therefore the Lord spoke 
of entering into the kingdom, he used an illustra¬ 
tion of great force to the people of his country and 
time. 

Bearing this in mind, the important question 
would be, how may one be made a Christian free¬ 
man, a citizen of this kingdom? Jesus said, by 
being born of water and Spirit. Thus again we 
come to the question, what does it mean to be born 
of water ? Is it to be baptized ? This question 
must be met squarely. The words meant baptism 
or they meant something else. It supposes this 


204 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


most emphatic declaration of Jesus, to have been 
strangely confused and inexplicit, to say with some 
that baptism is referred to in some way as a symbol 
of regeneration, but not expressly meant. His 
“verily, verily, I say unto thee,” requires of us a 
plain and unequivocal interpretation of what fol¬ 
lows. 

It ought to help us in getting a clear understand¬ 
ing of this matter to keep it in mind that the king¬ 
dom here spoken of, is not a visible earthly 
kingdom. 

The king himself is not visible. He is here on 
the earth indeed, dwells here ; but it is in the 
hearts of his subjects. There only has he a throne 
or a seat of government. 

He has no viceroy or delegated head of govern¬ 
ment here. The old giant—to follow Bunyan, who 
hides himself in the recesses of his Roman cave, 
sending forth now a threatening growl, and then a 
piteous wail, because he cannot prevent the moving 
on of that stone from the mountain, or hinder the 
increasing light of the gospel day, is the only 
claimant, even for such a place. 

There is no registry of the citizens of this king¬ 
dom on the earth. It comes not with observation. 
Its laws and principles steal into men’s hearts and 
produce effect upon their lives. Lookers on may 
see that one and another of their fellows appears to 
become loyal to Jesus, and this is about all they can 
see. True, there may be, and doubtless ought to 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


205 


be a public acknowledgment of allegiance to the 
king, a profession of loyalty, and this by that ordi¬ 
nance of baptism which symbolizes so beautifully 
death to the old life and resurrection to the new. 
But we must be careful not to change what is essen¬ 
tially a preaching ordinance into a mystical rite, 
and attribute to it some peculiar “ divine efficacy,” 
nor think that any visible ceremony can be the act 
of naturalization into a kingdom which is itself in¬ 
visible. 

Protection and privilege have been spoken of as 
inuring to those who enter the kingdom ; but 
neither are these visible or earthly in their charac¬ 
ter. For the present they can only be apprehended, 
and enjoyed by faith. 

The subjects—citizens—of the kingdom are 
always surrounded by enemies and dangers. No 
matter though their foes and their battles are mostly 
in their own hearts, they are none the less real and 
important. And in these battles they are sure to be 
overcome and carried into captivity, if the power of 
the kingdom is not put forth on their side. But it 
will be put forth, always and everywhere, for those 
who are in it. Jesus Immanuel has become the 
captain of their salvation : the broad banner of his 
care will be ever over them : their watchful keeper 
will never slumber nor sleep. They may say with 
the Psalmist “ I will both lay me down in peace and 
sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in 
safety,”—assured that “ when the enemy comes in 


206 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


like a flood the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a 
standard/ 5 and rouse the garrison of the soul against 
him. 0, it is worth something, more than can be 
told, to one who by his falls and failures has learned 
to know his own weakness and danger, to hear the 
King say as by direct message to his soul, “ The 
Lord is thy keeper ; the Lord is thy shade upon thy 
right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day 
nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve 
thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The 
Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming 
in from this time forth and even forever more.” 

It is worth something too, to one who knows the 
burden of sin, to know that so soon as his name is 
registered in the roll-book of the kingdom, all his 
transgressions are forgiven, his soul-debts cancelled, 
and the robes of his soul washed clean in the blood 
of the Lamb. 

Neither is it a small privilege, that just so soon 
as his citizenship is secured he has the right of entry 
to the presence of his Lord and may come to him 
always, as brother to brother, as child to father, and 
bring his smallest perplexity, his lightest grief, and 
every desire of his heart, being sure that he will be 
heard and helped to the utmost of infinite love and 
infinite power. 

And then at the last, borne scatheless through 
death and the judgment—hid in the secret of his 
Lord’s pavilion till the wrath is overpast, he shall 
be present when all eyes shall see the King in his 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


207 


glory, and with him shall have a crown and a 
throne. 

0, it is no light thing to have the protection and 
privileges of the kingdom of God ! 

If, now, the idea of a visible kingdom of God, 
equivalent to the visible church is abandoned, as it 
would seem, it must be by all who do not accept, 
in essence, the dogma of baptismal-regeneration ; 
then, the idea that “ born of water ” refers to bap¬ 
tism must also be abandoned, and the question re¬ 
mains. What is it to be 

BORi* OF WATER. 

Plainly, if these words do not refer to baptism 
they must be explained as a metaphor, and water 
must mean something other than literal water. 

To this it is objected that it is not good use of 
language to couple together a metaphoric, and a 
literal phrase as “ born of water,” and “ born of the 
Spirit,” are coupled in the text. 

The reply to this objection is, first, The orien¬ 
tal use of language was always more free than strict, 
and allowed the use of figurative expressions every¬ 
where and anywhere : and second, The use of the 
word born in the phrase is undeniably metaphoric, 
and if we go back to the Greek we shall see that the 
phrase “born of the spirit” is hardly so literal as it 
may seem. Pneuma means literally, a breath, wind, 
and its use to express spirit is really metaphoric. 
This seems a sufficient answer to that objection. 


208 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


Again it is said, that, while Nicodemus was be¬ 
yond doubt familiar with the use of literal water in 
religious rites, and must have known something of 
baptism as practiced by John and Christ’s disciples, 
he would not have understood a metaphoric use of 
the word. 

But if it can be shown that this would be a very 
natural metaphor, and its meaning so obvious as to 
be readily seen, that Jesus used it repeatedly and 
undeniably at other times, and that Nicodemus must 
have been familiar with its use, then of course the 
objection loses its force. 

The metaphor is a natural one. Jesus wished 
to impress upon the mind of his visitor the idea that 
in order to become a citizen of the true kingdom of 
God, he must come to live a new, and radically dif¬ 
ferent soul-life from his former one. His present 
and former life was the life of the flesh, a new and 
spiritual life must begin in him. 

Now in his time water and air were considered 
the life-giving elements. Let us look abroad over 
the earth and we cannot fail to see that always and 
everywhere water is indispensable to the giving, and 
continuing of life. This is equally true of both ani¬ 
mal and vegetable life. Every school-boy knows 
that those parts of the earth where no rain falls and 
no water flows, are desert. School boys may not 
know but intelligent men do, that in almost every 
instance, nothing is needed to transform the most 
barren desert into fertile fields, but an abundant 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


209 


and continued supply of pure water. Let there be 
copious and frequent rains on the desert of Sahara, 
or let the Nile be diverted from its course and be 
made to flow over it, and not one year would pass, 
ere “ the wilderness and solitary place would be 
glad thereof, and the desert rejoice and blossom as 
the rose.” 

Next to air, breath, pneuma, water is most indis¬ 
pensable to life, and may well be taken to represent 
that which gives and sustains the new life of the 
soul. 

What is it that does this ? Is it the Spirit alone ? 
Certainly not. There is a sense in which he does it 
all. He has given us the Bible and all gospel in¬ 
fluences. All Christian labors, too, which are effec¬ 
tive, are due to him as the motive force. But, the 
New Testament distinguishes between these indirect 
influences and his direct action upon the human 
soul. It clearly teaches us that the truth of the 
gospel, borne to men’s minds and made effective 
by human efforts, is indispensable to the salvation 
of souls. “By the foolishness of preaching God 
will save them that believe.” The Corinthian 
Christians were “begotten” by Paul “through the 
gospel.” The instance is yet to be found, of one 
truly regenerated by the direct action of the Spirit 
alone, without the gospel. Jesus represented the 
gospel and its influences by water, the direct action 
of the Holy Ghost by wind, breath. In this there 
was nothing far-fetched or hard to understand. 


210 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


Again, it was precisely in this sense that Jesus 
used the word water in his conversation with the 
woman of Samaria. He said, “ If thou knewest the 
gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, give me 
to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him and he 
would have given thee living water. Whosoever 
drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but who¬ 
soever drinketh of the water that I shall give him 
shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him 
shall be in him a well of water springing up into 
everlasting life.” There can be no mistake in re¬ 
gard to the meaning of water in this passage. The 
water which Christ would give, is that which will 
originate and sustain a new life in the soul. When 
the Samaritan woman drank in the teachings of 
Christ and the influences flowing from him, she 
drank the water of life. 

In John vii: 37-39 we read, “In the last day, 
that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried 
saying, If any man thirst let him come unto me and 
drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture 
hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living 
water. But this spake he of the Spirit which they 
that believe on him should receive, for the Holy 
Ghost was not given, because Jesus was not yet 
glorified.” Now it may be said that by his explana¬ 
tion John makes water here mean the same as the 
Spirit. The obvious reply is that the thirty-ninth 
verse is explanatory only of the thirty-eighth. John 
understood Jesus to allude in the thirty-eighth 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


211 


verse to the results that followed the outpouring of 
the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, when each be¬ 
liever became himself a fountain from which streams 
of salvation flowed. It is clear that the explanation 
cannot apply to the thirty-seventh verse, because 
there Jesus says, if any thirst let them come—come 
now to me and drink. 

Add now to these passages Rev. xxi: 6, “ And 
he said unto me, It is done, I am Alpha and Omega, 
the beginning and the end, I will give unto him that 
is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely ?” 
and nothing more is necessary to show that Jesus 
used the word water to mean the gospel with all its 
influences, or in other words, the means of salvation. 

We have now to inquire whether Nicodemus 
was, or from his position and circumstances ought 
to have been, familiar with a use of the word water 
similar to the one claimed. 

To answer this inquiry it seems only necessary 
to refer to the use of the word in “the Prophets.” 
It will not be denied that he was familiar with the 
prophecies that related to Messiah’s day. The 
mass of the Jewish people had made them a special 
study, and certainly Jesus had a right to assume 
that his visitor knew and understood them. And 
even if it were claimed that the spiritual import of 
the prophecies may not have been understood by 
him, it can hardly affect our argument, because it 
was the constant habit of Jesus to quote, and refer 
to the prophecies relating to himself and the gospel 


212 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


as though they were understood. The true question 
is whether Jesus had a fair right to use the meta¬ 
phor in question in talking to the Pharisee. 

Of the passages in the prophets which we are to 
examine, we are naturally reminded first of Isa. lv: 1, 
“ Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters, 
etc./’ and Isa. lviii: 11, “ And thou shalt be like a 
watered garden, and like a spring of water whose 
waters fail not.” These occur to mind because the 
words of Jesus already quoted, John vii: 37-38, are 
so nearly parallel to them as to seem almost like a 
quotation of them. 

In Isa. xxxv: 6, 7, we read, “Then shall the 
lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the 
dumb sing, for in the wilderness shall waters break 
out, and streams in the desert, and the parched 
ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land 
springs of water, in the habitation of dragons where 
each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes.” 

It will not be easy to mistake in regard to the 
meaning of this passage. It is a prophecy of Mes¬ 
siah’s day—of the gospel day ; and “ waters,” and 
“streams,” and “springs of water,” clearly repre¬ 
sent the life-giving and life-sustaining influences of 
the gospel. 

Isa. xii: 3, must not be passed without notice. 
The whole of chapters xi. and xii. are a prophecy 
of the reign of Immanuel, and we shall not mis¬ 
understand the words, “ Therefore with joy shall ye 
draw water out of the wells of salvation.” 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 213 

But the most remarkable use of this metaphor 
found in the Old Testament, is in Ezek. xlvii; 1-12. 
The prophet says :—Afterward he brought me again 
unto the door of the house ; and behold waters 
issued out from under the threshold of the house 
eastward ; for the fore-front of the house stood to¬ 
ward the East, and the waters came down from 
under, from the right side of the house, at the south 
side of the altar. Then he brought me out of the 
way of the gate northward and led me about the 
way without unto the outer gate by the way that 
looketh eastward ; and behold there ran out waters 
on the right side. And when the man that had the 
line in his hand went forth eastward he measured a 
thousand cubits, and he brought me through the 
waters, the waters were to the ankles. Again he 
measured a thousand, and brought me through the 
waters ; the waters were to the knees. Again he 
measured a thousand, and brought me through ; 
the waters were to the loins. Afterward he meas¬ 
ured a thousand ; and it was a river that I could not 
pass over ; for the waters were risen, waters to swim 
in, a river that could not be passed over. And he 
said unto me. Son of man hast thou seen this ? 
Then he brought me and caused me to return to the 
brink of the river. Now when I had returned, be¬ 
hold at the bank of the river were very many trees 
on the one side arid on the other. Then said he 
unto me, These waters issue out toward the east 
country, and go down into the desert, and go into 


214 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


the sea ; which being brought forth into the sea the 
waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass, 
that everything that liveth which moveth, whither¬ 
soever the rivers shall come shall live; and there 
shall be a great multitude of fish, because the waters 
shall come thither; for they shall be healed ; and 
everything shall live whither the river cometh. And 
it shall come to pass that the fishers shall stand up¬ 
on it from Engedi unto En-eglaim ; they shall be a 
place to spread forth nets ; their fish shall be ac¬ 
cording to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, 
exceeding many. But the miry places thereof, and 
the marshes thereof shall not be healed they shall 
be given to salt. And by the river upon the bank 
thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all 
trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither 
shall the fruit thereof be consumed; it shall bring 
forth new fruit according to his months, because 
their waters they issued out of the sanctuary; and 
the fruit thereof shall be for meat and the leaf 
thereof for medicine. ” 

Now it is believed that no one will doubt that 
this, also, is a prophecy of the gospel. It can¬ 
not well be explained in any other way. And 
then, Zech. xiv: 8, “ And it shall be in that 
day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusa¬ 
lem ; half of them toward the former sea, and 
half of them toward the hinder sea : in summer 
and in winter shall it be which is certainly spo¬ 
ken of the gospel day, is so nearly parallel to it, in ; 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


215 


some points, that they both evidently refer to the 
same thing. 

Let us study for a little, this marvelous river. 
We observe, 1. The origin of the river. This was 
in the temple. Now Christ spoke of himself as 
the true temple, and the literal temple was unques¬ 
tionably a type of Christ. Christ was the fountain 
then, we may assume, from which these waters 
flowed. 

2. The stream flowed through Jerusalem, which 
surrounded the temple,—and Jerusalem was a type 
of the true church, the bride of Christ,—and thence 
out into the Judean wilderness, and on into the 
Dead Sea. The wilderness must mean the same 
that it does in the quotations from Isaiah, and may 
well be taken to stand for the mass of unredeemed 
humanity. 

3. The growth of this stream is not like that of 
other streams. It has no tributaries, and flows 
through a desert and yet it steadily grows wider and 
deeper. It evidently has a reproductive power 
within itself. Just so it has been with the truth 
and influence of the gospel;—they have flowed on 
through the world growing wider and deeper as the 
centuries have passed by. 

4. This river gives life wherever it flows. Even 
in the barren desert, there springs up at once all 
along its course a living verdure ; and soon its banks 
are shaded everywhere by trees—trees, too, that in 
their turn become life giving, for they are trees 


216 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


“ Whose fruit is for meat,” and whose “ leaves are 
for medicine.” One can hardly fail to connect with 
this idea of the trees growing by the river, what is 
said in the first Psalm,—“ And he shall be like a 
tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth 
forth his fruit in his season : his leaf also shall not 
wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” 
God’s children are the trees, and the waters are the 
waters of life to them. 

The sea also—the Dead Sea, in whose salt bitu¬ 
minous waters, nothing can live, is healed so that 
its waters, too, become waters of life, and swarm 
with fish of every kind. Only the shallow, marshy 
and miry places, where the life giving waters are 
hindered from flowing, these “are not healed but 
are given to salt.” 

Now is the meaning of this vision of the prophet 
doubtful? Can this wondrous river represent any¬ 
thing else but the streams of gospel influences,—say 
gospel truth, if you will, only, in the gospel plan 
truth needs to be warmed and vitalized in living 
hearts, and become concrete in Christian lives, in 
order to be effective—that flowed first from the 
Saviour, then with a broader and deeper current 
from the apostles and their associates, and then on, 
broadening and deepening continually, as the hun¬ 
dreds, then thousands, and then many ten thousands 
who drank the waters, became themselves fountains 
from which the waters flowed to others ? 

The thoughtful reader will probably connect in 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


217 


his mind, with this vision, that of John recorded in 
Rev. xxii : 1-2, “ And he showed me a pure river 
of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out 
of the throne of God and the Lamb. In the midst 
of the street of it,” the city, “ and on either side of 
the river, was there the tree of life which bare 
twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every 
month, and the leaves of the tree were for the heal¬ 
ing of the nations.” It will be felt that the rivers, 
in the two visions, must be essentially, if not identi¬ 
cally, the same. Yet there is a difference. In the 
vision of the Revelator the river has no small begin¬ 
ning, no growth, but he sees it bursting in full 
volume from the throne of God and the Lamb. 
The difference 'appears to be in the time of the 
visions. In the first, the gospel is seen in its incep¬ 
tion. The stream flows from one pair of lips. It 
flows through human, earthly channels, and grows 
broader and deeper as it rolls on. In the second, 
the small beginning is not seen, the temple is gone, 
Jerusalem is gone, the wilderness and sea are 
gone. These all belonged to preceding ages when 
the gospel was spreading like the leaven in the meal. 
Now, the full triumph of the church, and her day of 
glory, has come. The tabernacle of God is with 
men. The New Jerusalem has come down, and the 
bride of the Lamb dwells in the mansions prepared 
for her ;—dwells perpetually in the presence of her 
wedded husband. The river of the waters of life 
flows still, and along its banks grow, as in the days 
10 


218 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


gone by, the trees whose fruit is for meat and whose 
leaves are for medicine, but human agency has dis¬ 
appeared, and God and the Lamb alone are seen to 
be the fountain of truth and of life. 

But what of the sea, the Dead Sea, into which 
Ezekiel’s River flowed ? Well, it will hardly weaken 
the position taken, regarding the general meaning 
of the passage, if this question be not answered. It 
is certainly a difficult one. But at the risk of its 
being thought fanciful, a suggestion will be made. 
If the waters of life mean gospel truth, issuing from 
lips that have been touched, as Isaiah’s were, by the 
living coal, taken by the seraph from the altar, then, 
perhaps, the waters of death, of the Dead Sea in 
which no living thing exists, may mean the outflow- 
ings of corrupted and depraved hearts unmixed 
with, and unaffected by the revelation of God to 
man. This much we know, that the literature of 
the world, in all times and places, in which the in¬ 
fluence of God’s revealed truth has not been felt, has 
been a very cess-pool into which all foul and poison¬ 
ous thoughts, all falsifications of religion, all per¬ 
nicious errors, and all infidelities, have flowed, and 
in which they have festered from age to age. More 
than this, we know, or at least may hopefully be¬ 
lieve ; that the world’s literature,—earth’s uttered 
and recorded thought—is being healed by the gospel. 
Year by year the influence of the gospel is extend¬ 
ing. Soon, we may hope, there will be few places 
where the education of the world will not be mainly 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


219 


in the hands of earnest Christians, and where minds 
imbued with the gospel will not be found to a great 
extent controlling the pen and the press. Even now, 
if one does not seek for polluting and error-bear¬ 
ing literature, he will find that the great mass of 
the published thought of our time is more or less 
helpful to a true, good life. The principles of the 
gospel have permeated it in some degree. 

Now it is submitted to the candid reader, 

First—that to interpret “ born of water,” as 
meaning baptism, is to surrender the whole text to 
the ritualists ; for it is folly, or something worse, to 
say that it means baptism, and that yet one may 
enter the kingdom of God without baptism. 

Second—That Jesus might fairly and intelligibly 
have used the word water to mean the saving, the 
life-giving influences connected with the gospel. 

Third—That the interpretation harmonizes the 
text with the facts and the philosophy of the plan 
of salvation. 

Fourth—That we are justified in believing it to 
be the true one ; and that when Jesus said, “ Except 
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot 
enter into the kingdom of God,” he meant that ex¬ 
cept a man receive the gospel in a humble teacha¬ 
ble, little-child-like spirit, and so turn under its 
influence as to enter upon a new life ; and also open 
his heart to the Holy Spirit so as to receive in his 
soul his direct, renewing power, he cannot enter into 
the kingdom of God. 


220 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


But the argument is not completed yet. 

The view taken shows the Saviour’s words to be 
—what they were evidently intended to be, explana¬ 
tory of what he had said before. Nicodemus had, 
beyond doubt, come to Jesus with the idea fixed in 
his mind, that as a lineal descendant of Abraham, 
in the line of Isaac and Israel, he was entitled to all 
the privileges of the Messiah’s kingdom. He was 
not yet quite sure that Jesus was the Messiah, but 
thought he might be, and wished to be on good 
terms with him. Hence his visit and complimen¬ 
tary address. But when the Master met him with 
the words, “ Except a man be born again he cannot 
see the kingdom of God,” he was thunder-struck. 
His next question shows this clearly, “ How can a 
man be born when he is old, etc.” The reply of 
Jesus explained the startling words by telling him 
first—that citizenship in his kingdom did not come 
by natural, but by spiritual birth. Second, that 
the new life which must begin in him, must grow 
out of the teachings of the gospel and the work of 
the Holy Spirit upon his heart. 

Let us turn now to Tit. iii: 5. This passage is 
regarded by most expositors as very nearly par¬ 
allel in meaning, to John iii: 5. The whole verse 
reads, “Not by works of righteousness which we 
have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, 
by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the 
Holy Ghost.” The washing of regeneration is held 
to be equivalent to being born of water, and the 



BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


221 


renewing of the Holy Ghost is of course the same as 
being born of the Spirit. Those therefore who think 
“ born of water” means baptism, think that the 
“washing of regeneration” means baptism also. 
If it does, then the passage may be truthfully ren¬ 
dered—he saved us by baptism and the renewing of 
the Holy Ghost. Who will adopt frankly and fairly 
this rendering ? Hone but pronounced believers in 
baptismal-regeneration. Yet many others will 
think “ baptism is somehow alluded to ” in the pas¬ 
sage. This will not do. The phrase either means 
baptism, or it does not. There is nothing of the 
nature of an allusion in it. Let us face the question 
fairly and not try to creep away from our position 
in smoke and dust of our own raising. 

“ The washing of regeneration ;”—these words 
remind us of words of the prophet Zechariah ; he 
said, “In that day there shall be a fountain opened 
to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Je¬ 
rusalem for sin and uncleanness.” These words were 
certainly spoken of the gospel day—is it not nat¬ 
ural to think that “the washing of regeneration,” 
is done in the fountain that is opened for sin and 
uncleanness ? But perhaps baptism will be found 
in ZecharialTs words also; it seems to be found in 
some places where we would just as little think of 
looking for it. 

If we can see that the waters of Zechariah’s 
fountain are the same metaphoric waters which 
Isaiah saw breaking out in the wilderness, and which 


222 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


Ezekiel saw flowing in that marvelous river, and 
that these waters, always and everywhere, constitute 
“the bath of regeneration,” then this passage in¬ 
stead of favoring a pernicious and fatal error, is 
seen to be in perfect harmony with the general 
teachings and spirit of the gospel. 

Closely related to Tit. iii: 5, is Eph. v: 26, 
“ That he might sanctify and cleanse it—the 
church, with the washing of water by the word.” 
Here too baptism is found by all who find it in John 
iii: 5, and Tit. iii: 5. They would have the passage 
mean that Christ saves the church by baptism by 
the word. Now, with all deference to much learn¬ 
ing be it said, this is simply nonsense. No living 
man can tell what “ by the word ” means, if “ the 
washing of water,” more correctly “ the bath of 
water,” means baptism. The Greek words here 
would be even more difficult to explain than the 
English. But let the bath of waters have the same 
metaphoric meaning that has been claimed in the 
other passages in question, and all is clear and forci¬ 
ble. “The bath of waters,” and “the word,” 
mean the same thing, and the latter phrase is ex¬ 
planatory of the former. 

One more text claims notice in this connection. 
1 John v: 6, “ This is he that came by water and 
blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by 
water and blood.” “ The authorities,” find baptism 
here also—Christ’s baptism. Well, by the form of 
this sentence, water and blood are made antithetic 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


223 


to each other, and we must conclude that in John’s 
mind, they were of equal importance. But the ex¬ 
pression “ not by water only but by water and 
blood,” seems to indicate a. fear that some might 
think that Christ’s coming by water was the more 
important fact of the two. Now Jesus was baptized 
and the fact noted by the evangelists, but beyond 
the simple record of the fact, there is, it is believed, 
no allusion to his baptism—unless it be in this text, 
by an inspired writer. And yet, in the mission of 
Jesus, his baptism was one of the two great facts, 
his death being the other; and there was danger of 
its being regarded as the greater and more im¬ 
portant fact of the two ! Believe this who can. 
No, no; the fact in the life and mission of Christ 
which was really antithetic to his death, was his 
preaching—his being the fountain from which all 
gospel truth and soul-saving influence flowed out. 
The water was metaphoric water. The river that 
Ezekiel saw flowed out from him. “ For this end 
was he born, and for this he came into the world 
that he might bear witness to the truth.” He said, 
“If any man thirst, let him come unto me and 
drink.”" 

In the minds of some, there is a connection be¬ 
tween this passage and the account which John 
gives of the flow of blood and water from the side 
of Jesus at the crucifixion. Perhaps there was such 
a connection in the mind of John ; but it is not easy 
to see that that throws any light upon the meaning 


224 


born of water and spirit. 


of this passage ; though this may possibly help us to 
see the import of the other. 

Let us now turn back to the words of Jesus; 

Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, 
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” We 
have studied sufficiently, perhaps, the phrase “ born 
of water,” and are prepared for the proposition, 
that when Jesus used it, he meant that 

All who would secure the benefits of his Icingdom 
and he saved , must so receive the truth and other in¬ 
fluences of the gospel, as to he led to turn from sin 
and self to holiness and God, and thus begin to live a 
new life. 

This change, the turning unto a new and 
godly life, is what we call conversion. We have 
seen, that conversion is not the equivalent of full 
regeneration, that one who is converted and stops 
there, not going forward into a deeper and fuller 
experience, is almost always weak in the principal 
elements of Christian character, and is greatly de¬ 
pendent upon such outward influences as were 
around him at his conversion. If, now, after he 
comes to this state, he receives the Holy Spirit as 
his living, present, comforter and advocate, and 
guide, and keeper ; Christ will be, by the Spirit, 
formed in him, as Paul desired him to be formed in 
the Galatians; he will be “sealed with the Holy 
Spirit of promise;” he will know God as his father, 
and be able to say from the heart, and in refer¬ 
ence to all things that do or may occur, “ Thy 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


225 


will be done.” In brief, he will be born of the 
Spirit. 

Such a one will find the source and support of 
his spiritual life to be within himself, a well of 
water springing up into everlasting life; and thus 
will become, a fountain of blessed influences that 
will flow out to others. He will be a consecrated, 
living Christian. He will know what Paul meant 
when he said, “lam crucified together with Christ, 
nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in 
me?” 0 the deep meaning of that word “Christ 
liveth in me ! ” The merely converted, “ born of 
water ” Christian will hardly understand it. 

“THOU SHALT CALL ME ISHI.” 

Rosea ii: 16,19, 20. 

" Oh my heart is full of laughter, 

I am very, very glad, 

For I have a precious treasure, 

Such as princes never had. 

Ishi, Ishi is the jewel— 

Mine he is while ages roll; 

Angels taste not of such glory, 

Holy Ishi of the soul.’' 

“ How I love thee ! none can utter 
Of its wondrous depth and power, 

Growing deeper, growing stronger. 

Day by day and hour by hour. 

Ishi, Ishi, night and morning 
From my lips that holy name, 

All the while my soul exulting, 

Beareth on the self-same strain. 

10 * 


226 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


“ Many beauteous names thou bearest,— 
Brother, Shepherd, Friend, and King, 
But they none unto my spirit 
Such divine support can bring. 

Other joys are short and fleeting 
Thou and I can never part! 

Thou art altogether lovely ; 

Ishi, Islii of my heart. 

“ Earthly loves are very lovely, 

Passing, passing fair they seem ; 

But they come and go before us. 

Like some bright and happy dream. 
Thou art a reality, 

From which like dreams I never wake 
Those I cast aside as nothing, 

Ishi, Ishi, for thy sake. 

" In thy own fair realms of glory, 

In the holiest above, 

There the ransomed chant the story 
Of thy wandrous matchless love. 

All my longings are contented, 

All my wonderings turn to thee ; 
Pole-star of my restless spirit, 

Ishi, all in all to me. 

“ When the sun of life is setting, 

When the shades of evening fall, 

And upon earth’s fairest visions 
Cometh darkness like a pall; 

Then, 0 Ishi! well beloved, 

I shall see thy glorious face 
Finding in thy loving bosom 
My eternal resting place.” 




X. 


CHRISTIANS OF BIBLE TIMES. 

“ Search the Scriptures.” John v. 39. 

If the positions taken in the preceding essay are 
well taken and true, we may reasonably expect to 
find in the New Testament revealings of Christian 
experience, traces of two, more or less distinct 
types of Christian character, corresponding to our 
ideal of one “ born of water,” and not yet born of 
the Spirit, and of one in whom the change is a com¬ 
pleted work, who is “ born of water and of the 
Spirit.” In searching for such traces we will be¬ 
gin with the chosen 

COMPANION'S OF JESUS. 

It is undoubtedly the common opinion among 
Christian people, that the apostles at least, if not 
others of the personal companions of Jesus were 
truly and fully regenerated, “born again,” when 
they become his associates, and to an extent, his 
helpers. 

That they were converted persons—were changed 
from what they had once been, it were folly to deny. 
Beyond a doubt, they believed in their Master as 


228 BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 

the Messiah, and humbly received his teachings and 
followed his lead. Beyond a doubt they loved him, 
and for his sake gave up their worldly plans and as¬ 
sociates, and hung their hopes of the future upon 
him alone. They turned away from the world, so 
that Jesus said of them, “ They are not of the 
world, even as I am not of the world.” 

But the inspired narrative of their sayings and 
doings clearly shows, that up to the time of the 
crucifixion they had not grasped at all the spiritual 
import of the Saviour’s mission. They appear to 
have had no thought of his dying as the Lamb of 
God to make atonement for them and for the world. 
When he did die, they felt that all their hopes 
which had centered in him were blasted. Can that 
be true, full, saving faith in Jesus which does not 
take hold of him as an atoning Saviour ? There 
was one man whose faith grasped the character of 
Jesus before the crucifixion ; one, whose faith pene¬ 
trated the dark clouds that hung around the cross ; 
but it was the malefactor who hung by his side, not 
one of his chosen friends. That malefactor was 
evidently taught by the Spirit—was “ born of the 
Spirit.” Not so with those who “ all forsook him 
and fled.” No doubt if it had been in the purpose of 
God for any of them to die with Jesus, such ones 
would have been prepared ; the Holy Spirit would 
have come into them, and would have awakened in 
them all the New Life. But God had other plans. 
They were to receive the Holy Ghost, but it pleased 


CHRISTIANS OF BIBLE TIMES. 


229 


God that before he came to them they should he left 
alone, without the personal presence of their Mas¬ 
ter, and should learn their weakness and their need, 
by their falls and sins. 

But the faith of the disciples before the day of 
Pentecost was imperfect and weak, not only in that 
it failed to grasp the atonement, but in this, that it 
depended very much upon external circumstances, 
upon what they could see, and was apt to fail just 
when it was most needed. When Jesus was with 
them and they were hearing his instructions, seeing 
the miracles which he did, and feeling the power of 
his personal presence, they believed in him, trusted 
him, clung to him very strongly ; but when the 
dark days came—the days in which they saw him 
’whom they had trusted yielding to the power of his 
enemies—saw him arrested and abused, and finally 
crucified unto death, their faith in him failed. One 
of the most trusted of them, is heard swearing that 
he does not know the man, and others, as they creep 
sadly away from Jerusalem, say, “ we trusted that it 
had been he who should have redeemed Israel.” Ah ! 
yes, they had trusted, but now they feel that their 
trust was vain. So when “ the women and Peter” 
came and told of the resurrection, their words 
seemed to the others ‘Mike idle tales—they believed 
them not.” And yet Jesus had told them plainly 
of his death, and of its necessity, and how he should 
certainly rise again. He had told them, but they 
did not understand him, and could not fully, until 


230 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


the enlightening Spirit had come. Their faith did 
not yet grow out of the divine power within them, 
but depended on what they saw at the time. Thomas 
was not the only unbelieving one among them. 

After the day of Pentecost, these disciples ex¬ 
hibited quite another type of faith. And it was 
not merely that their faith was stronger ; it was 
almost another sort of thing. 

It grasped the full import of the life and death 
of Jesus. He became to them something very dif¬ 
ferent from what he had been before. The atone¬ 
ment was understood, and at once became the 
central fact of the good-news which they preached. 

It depended too, upon what was within them 
rather than upon what they saw. The man whose 
faith failed on the sea, and who trembled, turned 
pale with fear, and finally denied his Lord, in the 
palace of the High Priest, was apparently as calm 
and quiet before the multitude of the crucifiers of 
his Master, after the Spirit had come, as was the 
Lord himself when he had faced them ; and when, 
later, we find him a prisoner bound with chains and 
expecting to be put to death on the morrow, we see 
him lying down and slumbering as sweetly as if on 
his own couch at home. As with Peter, so with the 
others,—they said, “ We walk by faith not by 
sight.” “They endured as seeing him who is in¬ 
visible.” 

The love of the disciples was not the same be¬ 
fore the Comforter came that it was afterwards. 


CHRISTIANS OF BIBLE TIMES. 


231 


They loved him truly before. Peter could con¬ 
fidently appeal to Christ’s knowledge of his heart, 
and say “Thou knowest that I love thee.” They 
loved him, but their love seems to have been much 
like ordinary, earthly, human love—largely emo¬ 
tional, and of course unsteady, and mixed more or 
less with selfishness. They loved him because he 
was their personal friend, was very lovable, and by 
his kindness to them and care for them, had drawn 
forth their gratitude ; and also perhaps, because 
they expected much from him when the time came 
for him to set up his earthly kingdom. 

Afterwards, when they had received the Holy 
Ghost, they loved, “ because the love of God was 
shed abroad in them; ” because their hearts and wills 
were sweetly harmonized with God; because, in¬ 
deed, they were “born of the Spirit.” One in 
whom the Holy Spirit abides cannot help but love— 
love so, that love shall be the controlling element of 
his life. The Spirit is love—and when 

“ He is the teacher, he can tell 

The wonders that he learnt above ; 

No other Master knows so well, 

’Tis Love alone can tell of Love.” 

The life of the disciples, while Jesus was with 
them was clearly a “mixed life,” in which a worldly 
and selfish spirit not only exerted an influence but 
often predominated. The gospels give many in¬ 
stances of this. On one occasion when such a spirit 


232 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


had been very manifest Jesus said to them, ex¬ 
plicitly, “Except ye be converted and become as 
little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom 
of God.” Now, it will hardly do to suppose, with 
some, that “ converted ” here, means only changed 
in views and opinions relative to the kingdom of 
God. The reference to a little child shows conclu¬ 
sively that it was their manifested spirit at which 
the Master’s rebuke was aimed. He would have 
them lose their pride, ambition, worldly-minded¬ 
ness, selfishness. He would teach them, that they 
were so far from being entitled to, and prepared for, 
any special privileges and honors in his kingdom, 
that they were not yet in it, but needed a deeper 
and more radical change of heart, before they could 
enter it. They were converted, they became like 
little children on the Day of Pentecost. 

In this connection, some things in our Lord’s 
farewell address and prayer, recorded in John xiii. 
xvii. are worthy of notice, as throwing light upon 
the spiritual state of the disciples at that time. 

In his prayer he said—John xvii. 11, 12,— 
“Holy Father, keep, through thine own name, 
those whom thou hast given me that they may be 
one, as we are. While I was with them in the 
world I kept them in thy name.” Now, Jesus had 
kept them by his personal influence, by his instruc¬ 
tions, warnings, reproofs, by watching over them. 
Had he been separated from them, they would prob¬ 
ably have gone back to the world. Peter would 


CHRISTIANS OF BIBLE TIMES. 


233 


have said “I go a fishing” and John and the rest 
would have said “We go with thee” long before 
they did say so. How he expected them to be kept 
in the future, we gather from what he had said be¬ 
fore. “ I will pray the father and he shall'give you 
another Comforter, that he may abide with you for¬ 
ever ; even the Spirit of truth ; whom the world 
cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither 
knoweth him, but ye know him for he dwelleth with 
you and shall be in you.—But the Comforter which is 
the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my 
name, he shall teach you all things and bring all 
things to your remembrance whatsoever I have 
said unto you.” 

We shall not mistake the meaning of this. The 
guide, the enlightener, the keeper, of the disciples 
henceforth is to be the Holy Spirit; and he is 
to come, not to dwell with them—as he had 
heretofore, in the person of Christ,—but now to 
dwell in them. To dwell in them. Ah ! there is the 
secret of the change that came over those men. 
They had been guided and kept, chiefly by external 
influences before, now, they are to be kept by inter¬ 
nal ones. This, Jesus himself says, will be better 
for them. ; “ It is expedient for you that I go away, 
for if I go not away the Comforter will not come 
unto you, but if I depart I will send him unto you.” 
The disciples could not, probably, understand these 
words when they were spoken,—they could not see 
how any thing could be better for them than the 


234 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


presence of their beloved Lord ; but afterward, 
when the Spirit had come, they knew that Christ 
himself had come back to them, not, as before, to 
be their companion, and teacher, and friend, merely, 
but now to abide in them—in the very citadel and 
sanctuary of their life—making their hearts his 
quiet home, and shedding abroad “ his peace ” there, 
and so keeping them from within, that serving him 
and doing his will should seem the natural and easy 
outflow of their hearts. 

Now is it not evident that the religious level of 
these people was quite different before the day of Pen¬ 
tecost from what it was afterwards ? And more—does 
it not appear that before that day they stood upon 
essentially the same level with converted persons 
generally at the present day ? They certainly showed 
the same dependence upon external influences, the 
same untrustworthy faith and love and zeal, the 
same weakness and liability to fall under the power 
of temptation and sin, the same inability to under¬ 
stand the higher and more spiritual teachings of the 
Saviour, and were children instead of being men in 
Christ;—not indeed “ little children,” in that high 
good sense in which Jesus often used that term, but 
rather in the sense in which Paul called the Corinth¬ 
ians, “ babes in Christ.” They were undeveloped 
Christians. They did not exhibit, fully and fairly, 
the traits which we have seen, do characterize, ac¬ 
cording to the Scriptures, those who are born of 
God. 


CHRISTIANS OF BIBLE TIMES. 


235 


It seems fair to conclude that they were “ born 
of water,”—not yet, born of the Spirit. 

We pass on now, to inquire respecting 

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IN THE APOSTOLIC CHURCHES. 

We wish to know if there are any traces in the 
accounts given of Christians who were under the 
teaching of the apostles, subsequent to the day of 
Pentecost, of what has been called a first and second 
conversion, or a being “ born of water ” and “ of the 
Spirit.” 

It must be confessed that there is but little re¬ 
lated in the New Testament of the experience of 
individuals ; but a few facts and a few passages in 
the Acts and in the Epistles, will help us in accumu¬ 
lating light and proof. 

1. It is worthy of notice that while conversion 
or repentance—these words mean nearly the same 
thing—and profession of faith in Christ appear 
always to have preceded baptism, baptism in nearly 
every recorded instance preceded the receiving of 
the Holy Spirit. Thus when the Spirit was first 
poured out, Peter, replying to those who “ cried 
out, what shall we do,” said, “ Repent and be bap¬ 
tized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, 
for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the 
gift of the Holy Ghost.” Again it is related in 
Acts viii. that “When Philip was at Samaria 
preaching, the people believed and were baptized 
both men and women, and that afterwards when 


236 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that 
Samaria had received the word of God, they sent 
unto them Peter and John ; who when they were 
come down prayed for them, that they might receive 
the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon 
none of them, only they were baptized in the name 
of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on 
them and they received the Holy Ghost.” Also 
Paul, on what appears to have been his second visit 
to Ephesus, and after Apollos had been preaching 
there, “ found certain disciples,” and learning on in¬ 
quiry that they had not received the Holy Spirit 
since they believed, he instructed them, they were 
baptized, and then he “ laid his hands on them and 
the Holy Ghost came on them.” 

These cases are sufficient to show what was the 
common order of such events under the apostles’ 
preaching. 

The case of Cornelius was different. There the 
Holy Ghost fell on those who believed before bap¬ 
tism. But this was so done, apparently, to thor¬ 
oughly convince Peter and his associates, that God 
had indeed opened to the Gentiles all the blessings 
and privileges of the gospel. 

Now it may be said that all this proves nothing 
on the point in question, because the “ gift of the 
Holy Spirit ” as made to the churches of that day 
was a very different thing from anything experienced 
in our time. 

The gift of the Holy Spirit will be discussed 


CHRISTIANS OF BIBLE TIMES. 


237 


more fully in another place. Now, it must suffice 
to say that when Peter was preaching and said as 
quoted, that those who believed and were baptized 
should receive the gift of the Spirit, he said, also, 
“ For the promise is unto you and to your children, 
and to all that are afar off, even as many as the 
Lord our God shall call.” Then, if we are called 
of God, the promise is for us. And surely we of 
this day need it as much as any have ever needed it. 
If the promise is for, and to us, who may say that 
it is not now fulfilled? 

Let us turn, now, to Eom. vii : 14-25. “For 
we know that the law is spiritual but I am carnal, 
sold under sin,” etc. 

This passage has been much controverted for 
generations. The question has been whether it 
describes a true Christian experience, and whether 
it describes Paul’s experience at the time when he 
wrote it. 

In trying to understand it, we should not forget, 
that the evident aim and purpose of the whole sec¬ 
tion of the epistle containing this passage, is to 
show the relations between the law, and believers 
under the gospel. In this passage, it will be ob¬ 
served, there is no reference to Christ or the Holy 
Spirit as the helper and deliverer of the soul, until 
we come to the 25th verse. The object appears to 
be, to show that the law—under the most favorable 
circumstances—fails to make men holy, because men 
are weak and sinful, and further, to introduce most 


238 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT\ 


effectively the help offered by Christ through the 
Spirit. The despairing wail of the 24th verse, “ 0 
wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death,” comes as from one whose 
only out-look for salvation is to the law. The ex¬ 
ulting shout of the 25th verse, “ I thank God 
through Jesus Christ our Lord ” I am delivered, or 
there is deliverance, comes as from one who has seen 
and grasped the salvation of the gospel. 

But there is no denying that, at the present day 
multitudes who bear Christ’s name, and whom we 
must call Christians, do find in the darker shades of 
this passage a true picture of their soul-life ; they 
are carnal; they are led captive by the law in their 
members ; they are in bondage sold under sin ; and 
it seems more than likely that a part at least of the 
Boman church were in the same condition ; as, there 
can be no doubt, the Galatian Christians were. 
They at least, “ having begun in the spirit ” were 
striving “ to be made perfect by the flesh.” 

Many of the most learned and honored of the 
expounders of God’s word have taught—and many 
still teach—that this state of being “ carnal sold 
under sin,” is consistent with the highest, earthly 
type of Christian experience ; that Paul himself 
never was freed from his bondage and “ body of 
death ” in this life. 

But what, then, means the language of triumph 
which immediately follows? “There is therefore 
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ 


CHRISTIANS OF BIBLE TIMES. 


239 


Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the 
Spirit. For the law” power, “of the spirit of life 
in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law ” 
power 66 of sin and death.” Nothing, just nothing 
at all. Neither Paul nor his brethren, were free 
from the law of sin and death. They did not walk 
after the Spirit but after the flesh. They had good 
aspirations and desires, but how to perform that 
which was good they found out. The righteousness 
of the law was not fulfilled in them, because they 
did not walk after the Spirit, but they found a law 
that when they would do good evil was present with 
them. 

The absurdity of such a position is sufficiently 
manifest. It certainly was not Paul’s position. 

It is confidently believed that those who find 
their level in the 7th of Komans have not as yet 
been born of the Spirit. They may have been, 
probably have been, converted through the truth 
and influences of the gospel, but have not yet re¬ 
ceived the Holy Spirit to their hearts as the abid¬ 
ing guest and the keeper of their souls. When they 
“ walk without condemnation,” it will be because he 
has come and broken their chains. And when he 
comes, he will break their chains and make them 
free. 

In Paul’s salutation to the Corinthian church, in 
his first epistle to the Corinthians, he uses language 
that is certainly suggestive of the idea that he did not 
consider the Christians of Corinth as all standing 


240 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


upon the same spiritual plane. He writes, “TJnto 
the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that 
are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, 
with all that in every place call upon the name of 
Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours, grace 
be unto you,” etc. He would hardly have expressed 
himself in this way, had he not felt unable to ad¬ 
dress all the Corinthian Christians, or even the 
church generally, as sanctified in Christ Jesus. 

In the second chapter and sixth verse he says, 
“ Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are 
perfect,” etc. Perfect here, must be taken to mean 
much the same that “spiritual” does in the first 
verse of the next chapter. “ And I brethren could 
not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto 
carnal even as unto babes in Christ.” It must be 
that with a large part of the church, the true spirit¬ 
ual life was undeveloped. Paul says he had be¬ 
gotten them through the gospel, but it can hardly 
be that they had so received the Holy Spirit as to 
be led by him and walk not after the flesh but after 
the Spirit. They were hardly born of the Spirit. 

As were the Corinthians, so and more so, were 
the Galatians. Most evidently they, as a body, were 
carnal and not spiritual. Paul’s opinion of their 
Christian development was not a high one. His 
language in Gal. iv: 19, “ My little children of 
whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed 
in you,” is certainly significant. He would never 
have written this had he felt that Christ was formed 


CHRISTIANS OF BIBLE TIMES. 


241 


:n them. It is also worthy of notice, that in the 
whole of the epistle to them, he never once uses the 
term saints or any equivalent term. 

Turn now to the Epistle to the Philippians. 
We shall find the tone of this quite different. Here 
the apostle begins, “ Paul and Timothy, the servants 
of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which 
are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons,” etc. 
Nobody but saints, and the officers of the church 
are addressed here. Did he believe that all of the 
Philippian Christians were sanctified in Christ 
Jesus ? Probably not ; and yet judging from the 
tone of the whole epistle, the church must have been 
one of peculiar spirituality and loveliness. 

The passage in this epistle which more than any 
other appears to indicate the existence of two 
classes of Christians in the church, is the 15th and 
16th verses of the third chapter, “ Let us therefore as 
many as be perfect be thus minded, and if in any¬ 
thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even 
this unto you.—Nevertheless whereto we have 
already attained let us walk by the same rule, let us 
mind the same thing.” “ As many as be perfect,”— 
now whatever the apostle meant by the word per¬ 
fect, it is plain that he did not consider all the 
Philippians as perfect. So when he says, “ whereto 
we have already attained,” he evidently has it in 
mind that there was a difference in their spiritual 
attainments. 

In order, however, to understand this passage 
11 


242 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


we must study it in its connection. Beginning at 
the 10th verse. “That I may know him, and the 
power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his 
sufferings being made conformable unto his death, 
if by any means I might attain unto the resurrec¬ 
tion of the dead. Not as though I had already at¬ 
tained either were already perfect; but I follow 
after, if that I may apprehend that for which also 
I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I 
count not myself to have apprehended, but this one 
thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind 
and reaching forth unto those things that are before, 
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high 
calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore as 
many as be perfect,” etc. 

Now, what especially concerns our present in¬ 
quiry is to know what the apostle meant by “per¬ 
fect ” in both the twelfth and fifteenth verses. Did 
he mean the same thing in both cases ? This is not 
probable, because in the first instance he evidently 
deprecates the calling of himself perfect, and in the 
second, he seems to class himself with those who 
may be so. It has been suggested that we are to 
take the second use of perfect as ironical. But this 
would do violence to the spirit of the whole passage, 
to that of the whole epistle even. The tone of the 
whole epistle is one of perfect fellowship and loving 
trust. There is hardly a word of rebuke in it, and 
we certainly shall not find irony in such a passage 
as this. The reading, “ as many as would be per- 


CHRISTIA NS OF BIBLE TIMES. 


243 


feet ” has also been suggested ; but Paul was in the 
habit of saying what he meant; if he had meant 
that, he would have said so. 

Must we not connect the first use of the term 
with the words, “ If by any means I might attain 
unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though 
I had already attained,” and interpret it by them ? 
It certainly seems so, if we would find in the pas¬ 
sage anything like a connected train of thought. 
But what does attaining to the resurrection mean ? 
Some say, the literal resurrection ; others, the res¬ 
urrection of the saints, or, the “ first resurrection.” 
The objections to either interpretation are the same. 
They are, first—The apostle’s disclaimer “not as 
though I had already attained, either were already 
perfect,” indicates a fear that some might think of 
him as having attained. But surely, no one would 
have been in danger of thinking, however high their 
opinion of Paul might be, that he had been raised 
from the dead, or was, literally, in the resurrection 
state. Second, the words “ if by any means I might 
attain,” seem to put the future attaining as barely, 
if at all, within the bounds of possibility ; and Paul 
would never have spoken so of the literal resurrec¬ 
tion, because, however much it might be an object 
of desire, it had been for years, with him, an object 
of assurance. For years, he had known that when 
his earthly tabernacle should be dissolved, he had 
“ a building of God—eternal in the heavens.” Third, 
Such an interpretation renders the passage prosaic 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 

and. formal to nearly the last degree, almost as 
much so, as many of the explanations of it, while it 
was really deep in meaning, and intense in feeling, 
beyond almost any thing else which even Paul wrote. 

Now, when Paul would “know the power of 
Christ’s resurrection,” and would “'attain unto the 
resurrection from the dead,” did he not have in 
mind a state of spiritual experience, in which his 
bodily appetites, and propensities, and even weak¬ 
nesses, should be as completely conquered and con¬ 
trolled, or even annihilated as they will be in the 
resurrection state ? He might easily imagine such 
a state ; a state in which he would not be merely 
“crucified with Christ,” but so risen with him that 
his body should no longer be a clog or hindrance in 
either serving or enjoying God. This would be 
perfection indeed. For this he knew that he had 
been apprehended of Christ Jesus—that this was the 
purpose of Christ, for him, by and by ; but his eager 
spirit could not wait; he would, if it were possible, 
attain, even in the present life, all the fulness of 
love to God and communion with him, and the per¬ 
fection of service which would be realized when he 
should be raised in the likeness of Christ’s glorified 
body. This he had not “attained.” He was not 
perfect in this sense. But he was earnestly striving 
to reach this mark. Toward this goal he was press¬ 
ing like a racer in the Olympian games. This was 
“ the mark of the prize of the high calling of God 
in Christ Jesus.” 


CHRISTIANS OF BIBLE TIMES. 


245 


This interpretation will enable us to understand 
the exhortation, 44 Let us therefore as many as be 
perfect be like minded.” Here, the word 44 per¬ 
fect,” evidently does not have the same high mean¬ 
ing as in the previous use of it. Here, we may take 
it in the same sense as in 1 Cor. ii : 6. 44 Howbeit 

we speak wisdom among them that are perfect,” as 
the equivalent of 44 spiritual ” in 1 Cor. iii: 1. 
44 And I brethren could not speak unto you as unto 
spiritual,” etc., and the meaning is, Let us therefore, 
as many as have received the Holy Spirit, and are 
conscious that he abides in us, and that Christ is so 
formed in us that we stand perfect and complete in 
him, no longer carnal or babes—but men, developed 
Christians, let us all have the same high standard of 
attainment before us, and not be satisfied, ever, with 
a past experience. 

Doubtless there was danger that those who had 
entered into the rest of faith, and were filled with 
the Spirit, should think that they had reached the 
highest attainment, and should stop to rejoice rather 
than press onward. This, he warns them against 
and intimates that even if, for a time, they make 
this mistake, Cod will reveal the better way to them. 

In this view of the passage the 16th verse, 
44 Nevertheless whereto we have already attained, let 
us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same 
thing,” becomes perfectly intelligible. There were 
those in the Philippian church who had not yet re¬ 
ceived the Holy Spirit—were not yet 44 spiritual,” 


246 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


and Paul would have them feel that there was no 
lower standard for them than for the most ad¬ 
vanced disciples. Whatever their attainment might 
be, whether high or low, there was but one rule of 
life for them all. They must “ keep the body under 
and bring it into subjection,” striving continually, 
like an athlete, to reach a higher and still higher 
spiritual standing, being satisfied with nothing short 
of the perfect and unclogged service of the resur¬ 
rection state. 

It is submitted now to the candid reader, that 
the Scriptures we have examined, do strikingly sug¬ 
gest, if they do not fully prove, that there was in the 
apostolic churches a class who had been brought 
under the power of the gospel, had received its truths 
and influences to their minds and hearts so as to have 
been really converted—turned from their old life, and 
become followers of Christ, who were yet far from 
being habitually led by the Spirit, and were living a 
mixed life, in which it was hard to tell sometimes 
which predominated, God or the world ; and that 
there was another class in whom the work of change 
had been so completed, that they habitually walked 
“not after the flesh but after the spirit,” and so were 
“spiritual,” and by the Spirit had Christ formed in 
them the controlling element of their lives. And 
furthermore that, as explained, the phrase “born 
of water,” does fitly indicate the one class ; and 
“ born of water and of the Spirit,” the other. 


XI. 


SECOND CONVERSION. 

“ I in them and thou in me, that they be made perfect in 
one ; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, 
and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.” John xvii. 23. 

Is it all a delusion ? 

There are many now living who believe most 
fully that they have experienced a change in their 
hearts since their conversion, more radical in its 
character and more permanent and uniform in its 
effects than conversion itself. Are they probably 
all deceived ? 

Many, very many of those whom all Christians 
honor as the righteous dead have left on record de¬ 
cided and clear testimony that they experienced 
such a change. Were they all deceived ? 

These witnesses, both the dead and the living, 
have been connected with many different denomina¬ 
tions, have subscribed to various creeds, and have 
called their experience by various names, so that 
there could not have been collusion among them, 
nor any concerted effort to sustain a theory, and yet 
they all have uttered their experience in essentially 
the same way ; and those now living are often sur- 


248 BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 

prised and delighted to find the utterances of those 
who went to heaven ages ago, to be so perfectly the 
language of their own hearts. 

Be sure there is something more than delusion, 
or fanaticism, or enthusiasm, in all this. There is 
a great fact in it which is worthy to be studied by 
all earnest Christians. And this we must believe, 
notwithstanding the fact that many who have been 
looked up to as leaders in Zion, who have been 
learned and honored theologians, have put on record 
their disbelief in such an experience, and their 
strong opposition to the doctrine which sustains it. 

Far be it from any of us to undervalue sound 
Christian learning ; but we may well bear in mind, 
that by learning alone none ever find out God. The 
workings of the Holy Spirit in the soul must be a 
matter of personal experience in order to be under¬ 
stood. And in this case, those who have never had 
the experience in question, cannot be good witnesses 
in regard to its reality. Learned divines may think 
of themselves, and others may think of them, that 
what they do not know of the gospel is not worth 
knowing. But there are things which are hidden 
from the wise and prudent, and revealed only to 
babes. We need not ask why. Jesus did not tell 
us why. He only said, “ Even so Father for so it 
seemed good in thy sight.” We know that learned 
men may be “ little children ” and the meekest of 
learners in the Spirit’s school,—we know too, that 
they may not,—and that the opposition of the 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


249 


learned is of itself, no proof that a doctrine, or an 
experience is not of God. 

Perhaps it should be remarked here, that some 
who have been classed among the disbelievers in, 
and opponents of this experience, may properly be 
considered as opposing only the theories of its 
advocates and the terms used by them. If we can 
distinguish between this class and such as reject 
the experience itself, and regard it as a delusion, it 
may be well to do so, else many honored and 
weighty names, among the great and good, may be 
ranged where they do not belong. 

This, however, is noticeable, that among those 
who have testified to having experienced this 
deeper change, there has been a very general feeling 
that they cared little for the terms used to designate 
it. James Brainard Taylor said, “ People may call 
this blessing by what name they please. Faith of 
Assurance, Holiness, Perfect Love, Sanctification, 
it makes no difference to me, whether they give it a 
name, or no name, it continues a blessed reality, 
and thanks to my Heavenly Father it is my privilege 
to enjoy it.” Still, names are convenient and 
rather necessary ; and theories will grow up around 
any phenomena, whether physical or moral, which 
are widely known. 

Mr. Boardman’s very sweet book, “The Higher 
Christian Life,” has made the terms “ Second Con¬ 
version,” and “The Higher Life,” familiar to many, 
and brought them into quite general use. Because 
11 ' 


250 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT, 


it is familiar to most, and not at all because it is the 
best term, the title of this Essay has been selected. 

In the Essay entitled Conversion the effort is 
made to show the religious level of ordinary con¬ 
verted persons at the present. We now wish to in¬ 
quire what the change called second conversion does 
for its subjects. We wish to know how those who 
tell of it as their own experience, differ—if they 
differ at all—from other Christians. In pursuing 
this inquiry two sources of information are open to 
us : what these persons say of themselves ; and what 
others say of them. Chiefly, must we depend upon 
their own testimony, because although the rule “ by 
their fruits ye shall know them,” applies to them as 
truly as to others, yet one who is not himself “ spir¬ 
itual,” will find it hard to understand the spiritual 
state of those who are. “The natural man re- 
ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for 
they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know 
them, because they are spiritually discerned. But 
he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he him¬ 
self is judged of no man.” 

What do they say of themselves ? 

Well—there are no two that tell the story just 
alike, but there is general uniformity in several 
things. 

Their views of God—especially of God in Christ 
are neiv, and very different from what they have had 
before. 

The fatherhood of God becomes very real to 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


251 


them. There is something in their hearts that cries 
Abba Father, as never before, and yet they have 
such a sense of their own utter weakness, and good- 
fornothingness, and depravity of nature, as utterly 
precludes the idea of their having done anything— 
or ever doing anything to win God’s favor. 

Now, it will probably surprise many to be told 
that most Christian people will show, to a close ob¬ 
server, when talking of their relations to God, that 
they rely very much upon their own works to secure 
and keep his favor. Nor is this any impeachment 
of their orthodoxy in regard to Justification by 
Faith. They do not depend upon any thing they 
have ever done. They would deny, with truth as 
well as emphasis, that there is, in their mind, any 
merit in the best of their works. And yet, when 
they speak of the future, they will tell of their reso¬ 
lutions and hopes of future faithfulness, and will 
show that they expect God’s approbation, and a 
sense of his love, just proportioned to their faithful¬ 
ness. They never seem to reflect that to depend for 
God’s favor on what we are going to do, is quite as 
much self-dependence, and is quite as deceptive 
and dangerous, as to depend on what we have 
done. Satan has hardly a more successful wile than 
this. 

There is hardly a feature of the change we are 
considering more uniform in all cases, and more 
marked, than this, that the deepest sense of God’s 
protecting, brooding love, comes yoked together 


252 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


with such a sense of smallness, unworthiness and 
nothingness, as they never knew before. 

This new sense of the Fatherhood of God is con¬ 
nected with an equally new apprehension of Christ 
as their ever living and ever present Saviour. They 
may for many years have believed in Christ as their 
Saviour, and thought of him often, and gratefully, 
as having died for them. But now he seems to live 
with them, and for them, ready to help—helping 
them indeed—all the time, and to be so “ mighty to 
save,” that all their fears in regard to the future are 
taken away. 

There is also a sense of personal union with 
Christ that is new. They have had, from time to 
time, before, a consciousness of his love ; he has 
seemed to visit them and smile sweetly upon them, 
but this is different. Now he has become, as it were, 
the husband of their souls. They know the deep 
meaning of the prophet’s word, “Thy Maker is thy 
husband; the Lord of Hosts is his name.” They 
feel the sweet thought thrilling through and through 
them that he has taken them, just as they are— 
with all their possessions, and all their soul-debts 
as well, as his very own, has taken them, “for 
better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,” to hold 
and keep them by his love and power forever. 
Yes, to hold and keep them against all the wiles 
of all their foes, and most of all, against them¬ 
selves until their earthly work is done, and he can 
take them up to dwell forever with him in the 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


253 


“ many mansions ” which his love has prepared and 
adorned. 

This consciousness of guarding and protecting 
love bring with it a sense of rest that is new and 
very blessed. With many, this seems almost more 
than anything else, the distinguishing characteristic 
of their new experience, so that they speak of it as 
“resting in Jesus.” This rest does not imply a 
cessation of activity, or that they find less to do for 
God and his cause, than formerly ; but that the 
work is easy. They know what Jesus meant when 
he said, “ My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” 
They rest because their wills move now in harmony 
with God’s will, and the old friction and resist¬ 
ance are gone. Many times there have been years 
before they “ entered into rest,” in which they have 
constantly felt themselves in a sort of slavery. A sense 
of duty was goading them on to pray when they had 
no spirit of prayer, to believe when their hearts were 
filled with unbelief, to watch when to be watchful 
seemed impossible. Now all this is changed, and 
these things seem natural to them. Some time ago, a 
lady was speaking to another, a sister in the same 
church, of her sense of perfect security and perfect 
rest in Jesus ; her friend seemed surprised, and, with 
almost a look of wonder, asked, “ But do you not have 
to watch all the time against temptation ?” The re¬ 
ply was, “ He keeps me watching.” This is what 
gives rest. It is not only that he will keep us if we 
watch, but that he will ever keep us watching. 


254 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


The ability to Trust —to believe, is also character¬ 
istic of this type of spiritual life. Most Christian 
pastors who seek to know the spiritual state of their 
flocks, can bear witness that everywhere Christian 
people are struggling with unbelief; are trying to 
trust, trying to believe, but are conscious all the time 
of failure, almost utter failure. When the Holy Spirit 
comes to “ abide 91 in us, faith becomes as easy and 
natural as our breathing. Said one who had but 
lately come into the assurance of faith, “0, I 
never knew till now, what it is to live the life of 
faith ! I thought before, that I knew what faith 
was. But 0, it is so different—this full, quiet 
leaning upon God every moment—this trusting him 
without a shadow of doubt, to be and do for me all 
he has promised to be and do—0, it is so different 
from anything I ever knew before !” 

Brotherly love is usually so developed in those 
whose experience we are studying, as to be, in a de¬ 
gree, a characteristic trait. Hot that others do not 
exhibit it—but there is a difference. In these it is 
more Catholic, is less confined by sectarian lines, 
and less affected by partisan feeling. It seems to 
grow, more evidently, out of the recognition by one 
of the Spirit of Christ in the other. It enables 
Christians to differ earnestly and yet not love each 
other less. It enables them to be more patient and 
forbearing toward the errors, foibles and weaknesses 
of others. It also enables them to give or take re¬ 
proof in a kind, good spirit, without bitterness. 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


255 


They are able to keep the unity of the spirit in the 
bonds of peace. 

Peace —this is often spoken of as a marked fea¬ 
ture of this experience. Many speak of the perfect 
peace which they find in their hearts as something 
wonderful. They seem to know by experience what 
the apostle meant when he said, “ The peace of 
God which passeth all understanding, shall keep 
your hearts and minds by Christ Jesus.” Often 
God’s peace is to them deeper, richer, more soul¬ 
absorbing than love or joy—is truly like a river, 
full, strong, ceaseless in its flow ; and is not kept, 
but keeps them. Trials and temptations come and 
go, and these are sometimes more terribly severe 
than they have ever before known, but they only 
agitate the surface of the soul, as the wind ripples 
the river ; down in the depths all is peace. 

Consecration always marks this experience, where 
it is genuine. So certain is this, that it may be 
laid down as a rule, that if one does not exhibit 
the spirit of consecration, it matters little what of 
ecstasy or religious exaltation he may have felt, 
doubt will be thrown over it all ; and on the other 
hand if one does feel and show that his person, 
property, reputation, happiness and will, are wholly 
the Lord’s, he may be sure that the Holy Spirit is 
abiding in his heart, even though he cannot tell 
when or how he came there. 

Those who tell of rest in Jesus, usually tell of a 
time, more or less extended, in which they con- 


256 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


stantly felt that entire consecration was a duty, but 
as constantly found themselves unable to give up all 
to God. Often it would be some trifle, some most 
unimportant thing to which their hearts and wills 
would cling, and which they would seem unable to 
surrender to God’s will. It is strange that it should 
be so, but it is undeniably true that very many, 
while they have been active workers and leading 
members in the various churches, have been con¬ 
sciously unable to utter from the heart, in reference 
to all things, the prayer, “ Thy will be done.” And. 
when the time has come, in which their wills have 
sprung up to meet and grasp all God’s will in per¬ 
fect and glad harmony—when they have been able, 
not in ona thing only, but in everything, and not 
only once in a while, but always to choose all God’s 
will, whatever of labor, of sacrifice, of humiliation, 
of disappointment, of pain or of death it might 
bring to them—it has been a very great change. 
This they have realized. They have borne testi¬ 
mony through sharp and long continued trials and 
crosses, such as few, have to bear, that their wills 
have never once wavered, nor ceased to choose all 
God’s will. 

Perhaps one or two sketches of personal expe¬ 
rience may not be out of place here. The following 
was published some years ago in one of our religious 
newspapers, and is the experience of a pastor who is 
still living and bearing testimony to the great sal¬ 
vation. 


SECOND CONVERSION 


257 


MY BONDAGE. 

“ But I see another law in my members, warring 
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into 
captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.” 
Rom. vii: 23. 

“Nearly twenty years ago, one evening when 
passing from my room in the seminary, where I was 
then studying, to the boarding hall, a dear brother, 
now many years in Heaven, passed his arm affec¬ 
tionately through mine, and inquired of my spirit¬ 
ual welfare and progress. 

“After a short conversation, he placed in my 
hands a little book, ‘Mahan on Christian Perfec¬ 
tion,’ with the request that I would carefully and 
prayerfully read it. I did as requested ; and before 
its perusal was finished became profoundly convinced 
that whether the philosophy of the writer was 
wholly correct, and his choice of terms judicious or 
not, one thing was sure, there was attainable for the 
Christian a 6 higher life,’ a deeper experience than 
had yet been mine. 

“ I saw very clearly that I was not entirely con¬ 
secrated to God, was not wholly set apart to his ser¬ 
vice, and that my will was by no means lost in his. 
I saw too, not only the reasonableness of God’s 
claim upon me for entire consecration, but that 
such consecration was not more a reasonable duty 
than a promised gospel blessing. I came at once 
4 under conviction.’ 


258 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


“ And now as I write, I feel a strong desire to 
pass over about eighteen years of my life with the 
single remark that I remained ‘ under conviction 9 
all the time. But the thought that possibly some 
one may be benefited thereby, impels me to relate a 
few recollections of my life and experience during 
that time. 

‘•'It was a matter of course, perhaps, that one of 
the first questions arising in my mind should be, 
how am I to attain this blessed state ? In seeking 
the answer to this question, I naturally inquired— 
how have others attained it ? This led me to read 
almost everything in the way of religious biography, 
and of books which professed to guide those who 
were seeking a closer walk with God within my 
reach. I read the Bible too, carefully, prayerfully. 

“ Perhaps I gained all the light that I was pre¬ 
pared to follow and improve ; but it seems to me 
now, that some of the impressions made upon my 
mind were a hindrance, rather than a help to me. 
Thus, I came early to think that most, if not all 
who had ever attained this state, had been more 
than ordinarily faithful and devoted Christians bc- 
fore such attainment; and had been very earnest 
and persevering in seeking it ; and this idea, asso¬ 
ciated as it was in my mind with a deep sense of my 
own weakness and unfaithfulness, was at times a 
source of very great discouragement to me. Others, 
it seemed to me, might be faithful and successful 
seekers for this, but as for me, let me resolve ever 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


259 


so strongly to pray, and labor, and watch, and deny 
myself, my prayers and labor would soon become 
formal, and then be neglected in a measure, mv 
watchfulness would fail before I knew it, and my 
self-denials become a wearisome and irksome burden 
to me. 

0 ! a hundred times, I suppose, I have looked 
back over my pathway, all strewn as it was with 
broken resolutions, shattered hopes and withered 
aspirations, and felt, with a deep heart-sickness that 
I cannot express, that I could not be faithful—that 
I was truly the captive, the fettered slave of my 
carnal weakness and depravity. Often in those 
days would the thought come over me—this very 
blessing which others have faithfully sought and 
found, I need to make me faithful, else I shall 
never be so. Now, I know this to be true, and I 
believe that then it was a suggestion of the Holy 
Spirit—a whisper of the voice behind me saying, 
‘ This is the way, walk ye in it/ 

“ There was another obstacle in my way. I could 
not earnestly and hopefully seek the blessing I de¬ 
sired, because I was almost always conscious of an 
unwillingness to yield up my will in everything, to 
submit all my purposes, plans, hopes, habits and 
indulgences, to God. This unwillingness would, of 
course, destroy all my confidence in prayer. How 
could I pray for the Holy Spirit, when I knew that 
I was not ready to be led by him ? How could I 
pray to be sanctified wholly, to be made a living- 


260 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


sacrifice, when I was conscious that my heart re¬ 
coiled from the altar? There were, it is true, times, 
many times—seasons of revival—scattered along 
through those years, when I seemed, to myself, to 
give up all for God and to him. But always, if I 
dreamed for a little time, that my will was lost in 
God’s and that I had gained the prize, some test 
question or duty, would be brought before me, and 
I would soon discover that the ‘ law in my mem¬ 
bers ’ was still a living power, and that I was cap¬ 
tive still. 

“ Some time in the fall of 1854, I think it was, 
the question of submission to God’s will came up 
very distinctly before my mind. I had been, for 
some little time, more than usually revived in my 
religious life, had been praying, and laboring among 
my people, with more than usual zeal and earnest¬ 
ness, but had been much assailed by temptation find 
often overcome, until I seemed wearied, somewhat, 
with the struggle, when, one day while alone in my - 
study, the whole subject of consecration to God 
seemed to come up before me. It was almost as if 
the question had been put to me audibly,—was I 
willing, then and there, to give up all and take 
Jesus for my Master in everything,—would I be, 
henceforth, guided in every act and plan of my life 
by his will ? But my poor rebellious heart drew 
back, I felt that I was not willing. In a moment 
my soul was dark—dark as night. I was almost 
frightened. I fell upon my knees, but I could not 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


261 


pray. Every word seemed to die ere it came to my 
lips. I could only say ‘ God be merciful to me a 
sinner.’ 

“ Months, yes, years, rolled away before that cloud 
was once lifted from my spirit. My heart ached 
very often in view of the decision I had made, and 
yet I seemed to have no power to reverse it. I con¬ 
tinued steadily preaching and, in a sort of tread¬ 
mill way, going the round of my pastoral duties. 
Somehow I dared not, could not stop. A necessity 
seemed laid upon me, and a woe, if I did not preach 
the gospel. At times, during those weary years, I 
was terribly tempted to unbelief. I was tempted to 
doubt my own conversion, to doubt that of others, 
to doubt, indeed, if experimental religion were not 
all a delusion and the gospel false. Arguments did 
me no good, my soul seemed drifting, hopelessly 
out on the dark, starless, shoreless, ocean of infi¬ 
delity. I recoiled from it, and time and again said, 
in my heart, I will cling to the Bible and be de¬ 
ceived rather than give it up and be afloat upon 
those waters of death. These seasons of unbelief 
did not usually last long, but they were terrible. 

THE CHAINS BROKEN. 

(i The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus 
hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” 
Bom. viii: 2. 

“ The winter and spring of 1857-8, will be long 
remembered as a time of general religious awaken- 


262 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


ing. Very many remember it as the time when they 
learned to know Jesus. It was to me as the year of 
Jubilee. During the fall and winter, God’s Spirit 
was very graciously poured out in our town. I felt 
the power of the revival, and rejoiced in it, though 
not in so great a measure as at some former times. 
The dark cloud, of which I have spoken, was over 
me still and I had come to doubt much if it would 
ever pass away in this world. Still, when I now 
look back upon those days, I can see that I was be¬ 
coming more truly and deeply humbled, more 
emptied of self and more ready to give up my will 
to God than ever before. 

“ In January, 1858, some rather severe trials were 
appointed to me, trials which tested my willingness 
to say “ Thy will, not mine, be done.” I believe 
that more fully than at any former period, I was 
enabled to say it, and choose God’s will as mine. 

“ Early in February, I do not remember the day 
nor any attending events, but I well remember the 
fact. I seemed to wake up, as from a dream. A 
new sensation seemed to fill me, to permeate my 
whole being. It was something I had never felt be¬ 
fore. It was not exactly joy. It was not as excit¬ 
ing as religious joys had been before. It was peace, 
deep, calm, perfect peace. It was 

“ The sacred awe that dares not move, 

And all the silent heaven of love.” 

“ It was light, an atmosphere of light in which 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


2G3 


my soul seemed bathed, and which seemed to pene¬ 
trate body and soul alike. 

“ One of the first mental exercises, which oc¬ 
curred after this waking up, as I recollect it, was, 
that the question which I had answered, years be¬ 
fore, in the negative, now came back to me even 
more strikingly than before. It was as though I 
heard an audible voice say, * Are you willing, now 
to take God as your master in everything ? Are you 
willing now to take his will as yours without a ques¬ 
tion and without the least reserve ? Are you quite 
willing that he shall appoint all your future life, 
and send you crosses and afflictions, blasting your 
earthly hopes and joys, just as he shall see fit ?’ I 
remember thinking, I will examine myself, I will 
not answer hastily. But immediately the cry seemed 
to come welling up, as from the depths of my heart, 
0, not willing !—that is not quite the word, but I 
am glad, so glad that he will be my master, every 
moment, in everything. How could I ever have 
hesitated, even for one moment, to choose his will 
for mine ? How could I so distrust his love and 
wisdom ? All the fears that I had had of the trials 
or crosses which he might send me were gone, utterly 
gone. I could realize now, for the first time, that 
‘perfect love casteth out fear.’ 

“ This, to me, was a new experience, different, 
certainly different from my conversion and from any 
thing I had ever felt before. I am not anxious as 
to what it shall be called, or whether it be named at 


264 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


all. I only care to tell, as plainly as I can, what 
God has done for my soul. I would bear a testi¬ 
mony for him. I feel a debt of love to him resting 
upon me which eternity will not be long enough to 
pay. I would at least acknowledge the debt. 

“ But the question will be asked, perhaps, 
‘ Does your experience continue what it was at 
first ?’ I reply, yes, and no, I have not always felt 
during the months and years that have passed, I do 
not now feel all the overflowing sweetness and ten¬ 
derness of the first few days. Sometimes I have been 
‘in heaviness through manifold temptations.’ Tri¬ 
als, severe and bitter, have been appointed me. 
But I do feel that I am as fully the Lord’s, that my 
whole spirit and soul and body, are set apart to him, 
as a ‘living sacrifice,’ as fully as then; that there 
has never been a time since then, when I wished to 
take my hand out of the hand of Jesus ; I certainly 
do not wish to do so now. 

“0 ! ‘ I thank God, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord,’ there is deliverance, and rest in Jesus, even 
for one so weak as I.” 

It will be but natural and reasonable if the ques¬ 
tion be asked, in this connection, what is the char¬ 
acter, as Christian workers, of those who profess to 
have this experience ? The Saviour’s rule, “ By 
their fruits ye shall know them,” must be applied 
here, as everywhere else in Zion. An experience 
that does not exert a controlling influence over one’s 


SECOND CON VERSION. 


265 


every day life, is not to be relied upon, no matter 
how much of ecstasy there may have been in it, nor 
how remarkable in other respects it may have been. 

Still, it is a difficult question to answer in any 
general way. If it be claimed that as a rule they 
are more faithful than others, this will provoke a 
comparison of individuals, such as is never desirable. 
The true way would be, to compare the life that fol¬ 
lows this change in any person, with the same per¬ 
son’s life before the change. The observation of 
the writer gives him the confident opinion, that in 
nearly every case, where the change is genuine, there 
will be found a great increase of Christian activity. 
And this, notwithstanding many of those who pro¬ 
fess the change, have been good workers before. In 
those who have not been active, the change will 
be very marked. One such case may be briefly 
sketched. 

A. B., was a few years ago, living about two 
miles, more or less, from the church of which he 
was a member. He was not far from thirty years 
of age. He used to come to meeting on Lord’s day 
once in a while, to prayer-meetings and other ap¬ 
pointments of the church almost never. He was a 
pleasant, well disposed man, a good neighbor, and 
doing nothing noticeably bad, was just one of chose 
who count upon the church roll, and not much 
more. 

In the revival winter of 1857-8, he was much 
awakened. Soon after God visited him in affliction, 
12 


266 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


taking away, after a protracted and distressing ill¬ 
ness, his beloved wife. This trial was sanctified to 
him, and soon he was very earnestly reaching out 
after God, and longing to know the fulness of his 
love. Now followed a time of most painful dark¬ 
ness and mental distress. At times he seemed in 
agony. It was not the agony of fear,—but God had 
made him feel that he could not live without his 
loving favor, and he saw himself such a sinner, and 
so utterly weak and worthless, that he had almost 
no hope of God’s favor. Days and weeks went by 
and the darkness still continued. He seemed to 
himself to gain nothing—and yet, one after another, 
the idols of his heart were given up, not in a bar¬ 
gain with God, but in submission to his will. 
About the last, and almost the severest struggle was 
over tobacco. That, too, went; he seemed emptied 
of self, and to have given up all, and yet there was 
no light. He was discouraged—crushed in spirit. 
A few hours later God seemed to take him, like a 
little child, right up into his arms. He could rest 
on the bosom of Jesus. “The peace of God that 
passeth all understanding” filled him—and kept 
him. He became very happy, and through all the 
years since has been a loving, trustful disciple. 

But, how about his working ? Well,—first, he 
could not live contentedly without prayer meetings ; 
and being much away from home, and in places 
where there were none, he would start them himself, 
persuading others to come in. He could not get 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


267 


along without talking about Jesus, and few if any 
were near him long without finding out where his 
heart was, and feeling the power of his faith. His 
pastor had reason to know that he was a generous, 
even bountiful giver, for all good objects. He could 
not keep out of the Sunday school now, and in a 
few months was its superintendent,—in a few more, 
the school was greatly increased in interest and 
power. After a time he removed to a new home, 
where he was a stranger in a large church contain¬ 
ing probably more than ordinary culture and talent; 
he was not learned nor particularly talented, but he 
loved Jesus. Soon he was invited to be teacher of a 
Bible class of young men—there were three or four 
in the class. A year or so later it had grown to 
number about thirty,—several had been converted 
and others were seeking to know Christ. He has 
been usually in feeble health, and has had exhaust¬ 
ing business cares and labors, which would have 
excused most Christian professors from special labor 
in the church ; but he loves to labor for Jesus. 

Now tell us, brother pastors, you who know 
the work to be done and how church members gen¬ 
erally are doing it, tell us, would it not be a great 
and blessed change if all the Lord’s people, according 
to their measure, were filled with the Spirit, as was 
this brother ? Suppose we try seeking, for them, 
the inspiring quickening power of an indwelling 
Christ, rather than to goad them on to duty, as we 
are commonly doing. 


268 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


But, what relation has this “ higher life ” to 
regeneration? Is one who is truly born of the 
Spirit in this state ? It is believed that regeneration 
does properly include this change, because, 

1. The Bible portrait of one born of God, is as 
high toned as any true picture of the higher life can 
be. 

The trouble is, we have been so long accustomed 
to regard regeneration as but a synonym for conver¬ 
sion, and so to attach a low meaning to it, that it is 
hard to grasp its full significance. Have we not 
thus made void the word of God by our traditions ? 
If we think of it carefully we must perceive that 
one truly born of God by spiritual generation, must 
in the nature of things, be a spiritual and holy man. 
It must be, that if the Spirit of God abides in one, 
he will so influence the heart and will, as to practi¬ 
cally rule the life. This must be what John meant 
when he said, “ Whosoever abideth in him sinneth 
not,” and, “ Whosoever is born of God doth not 
commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him and he 
cannot sin, because he is born of God.” We are not 
to take it, that he asserts the absolute sinlessness of 
all who are born of God, but only the general prin¬ 
ciple that one who is (i created in Christ Jesus unto 
good works” will do good works, and not wicked 
ones ; that one who has become a true child of God, 
will so partake of his Father’s nature and Spirit, as 
to have harmony of will and purpose with him, and 
so cannot knowingly transgress or neglect his 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


269 


Father’s will. Evidently, with John, being born of 
God meant something. 

Paul said, “As many as are led by the Spirit 
of God they are the sons of God.” Now is it not 
better to follow John and Paul, and believe that 
one who is truly regenerate—born of God, will be a 
practically, holy, and truly good man ; as good as it 
can be justly claimed those are, who are in the 
“ higher life ?” 

2. The doctrine of regeneration as expounded by 
such men as Edwards and Doddridge , did bring 
people into the same spiritual state that is now called 
the “ higher life.” 

Doddridge, speaking of his intimate friend Lady 
Huntington says, “she has God dwelling in her, 
and she is ever bearing her testimony to the present 
salvation he has given us, and to the fountain of 
living waters which she feels springing up in her 
soul; so that she knows the divine original of the 
promises before the performance of them to her, as 
she knows God to be her Creator by the life he has 
given her.” 

In his “ Practical Discourses on Regeneration,” 
p. 73, Doddridge puts into the mouth of a regene¬ 
rate man such words as these, “ Ignorant as I am, 
I shall be taught and instructed bv him, that great 
prophet whom God sent into the world ; by him 
who is incarnate wisdom as well as incarnate love ; 
whose words resound in the gospel, and whose 
Spirit seals the instructions of his word. Guilty as 


270 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


I am my crimes shall be expiated for there is re¬ 
demption in his blood ; even the forgiveness of 
sins ; there is an everlasting righteousness that he 
has introduced ; and 0, how richly will it adorn my 
soul! This pollution of mine shall not forever ex¬ 
clude me from a comfortable intercourse with the 
pure majesty of heaven ; for Christ is come to be 
my sanctification ; and he can cleanse me by his 
Spirit and transform me into that divine delightful 
image which I have lost. Victorious Lord, how 
easily canst thou redeem me from that state of ser¬ 
vitude in which I have been kept so long complain¬ 
ing ! How easily and how powerfully canst thou 
vindicate me into the glorious liberty of the children 
of God! Blessed Jesus thou art my light and my 
strength, my hope and my joy ! Thou art just 
such a Saviour as my necessity requires ; thou fin¬ 
est up all my wants and all my wishes ; thou art all 
in all to me ! I would not be ignorant of thee for 
ten thousand worlds. I would not live a day, nor 
an hour, without recollecting who and what thou 
art, and maintaining that intercourse with thee 
which is the life of my soul.” 

Edwards in his account of the great revival at 
Northampton and elsewhere, says of the converts, 
“ The joy that many of them speak of as that to 
which none is to be paralleled, is that which they 
find when they are lowest in the dust, emptied most 
of themselves and as it were, annihilating themselves 
before God ; when they are nothing and God is all; 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


271 


when they see their own unworthiness, depending 
not at all upon themselves but alone on Christ, and 
ascribing all glory to God ; then their souls are most 
in the enjoyment of satisfying rest; excepting that 
at such times they apprehend themselves not to be 
sufficiently self-abased; for then of all times do 
they long to be lower. Some speak of the exquisite 
sweetness and rest of soul that is to be found in the 
exercise of a spirit of resignation to God, and humble 
submission to his will.” 

Now this language will be recognized by all who 
know what “full salvation” is, as the language of 
their own hearts. They know that Jesus can bring 
“ them into the glorious liberty of the children of 
God.” To them he is “ light, strength, hope, joy ;” 
“ he fills all their wants, all their wishes.” They 
are always “ happiest when lowest in the dust and 
most emptied of themselves.” They know the 
“ sweetness and rest of soul which is found in resig¬ 
nation to God and humble submission to his will.” 
They are “ nothing and God is all in all.” These 
are almost pet phrases with them—words that are 
always on their lips. 

Evidently the standard of Christian attainment 
was as high in the minds of Doddridge and Ed¬ 
wards, and those who thought with them, as in the 
minds of any who believe-in the “higher life.” 

Nor so far as the writer has learned, was there 
anything like instantaneous regeneration thought of 
by these men. They do not speak of the change as 


272 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


wrought by “a miraculous touch of the divine 
hand.” Regeneration was to them the generation 
by God, of a true Christian character and life in the 
disciple. 

3. When one comes into the ‘ 6 higher life ” it is 
an almost invariable rule that he feels himself to be 
but a little child , and just ready to begin to learn 
and to grow. 

It is one of the saddest things about the state of 
a great many converted persons, that they do not 
grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord.” 
Very often they look back over twenty, thirty, even 
forty years and feel that the first few weeks after 
their conversion was the best time they have ever 
seen; and so far as appears they are not stronger to 
work, or to suffer for God than they were in those 
first days. 

But when one, after years spent in this way, 
comes to “ know Jesus as a full Saviour,” there is an 
immediate change ; there is anxiety to learn, and 
there is growth in knowledge ; there is hunger for the 
bread, and thirst for the water of life; and eating and 
drinking, there is growth in strength and grace. 

4. Regeneration, as ice have already seen , is the 
change that fits a sinner for the society of God and 
the holy in heaven ; the Bible doctrine is that one 
born of God is saved—has eternal life ; but there is 
nothing in the experience of the i( higher life,” which 
does not appear essential , indispensable even , to fit¬ 
ness for God's presence. 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


273 


One can hardly be looked upon as prepared to 
die, who is consciously devoted to self more than to 
God ; who knows that his will is not in harmony 
with God’s will; whose heart-treasure is chiefly on 
the earth ; whose faith in Christ does not give him 
rest of soul; and whose love does not take away all 
fear. 

These reasons, taken in connection with what 
we have learned from the Scriptures examined, seem 
sufficient to warrant us in saying, that the expe¬ 
rience which we call Second Conversion is included 
in true and full regeneration, and is equivalent to 
being born of the Spirit. 

This conclusion may be startling to many. It 
may be pronounced uncharitable and harsh. It 
may seem to throw overboard, as lost, many very 
good Christian people, both of the living and 
dead. 

But it may not be really so bad as it seems. It 
does not make the spiritual prospects of the mass of 
those who are consciously not wholly the Lord’s any 
more uncertain than they themselves feel them to 
be. If we go around among the church members 
that we know, and ask each one if he feels now, this 
day, ready to die, and without fear if death should 
come ; we should get few affirmative answers. The 
ordinary Christian hope is, that fitness for heaven 
will come, by and by, before death comes. 

Again, among those who seem to be really con¬ 
verted there is very often something which is called 
12 * 


274 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


ripening for "heaven, which is really equivalent to 
this second change. 

And again, there may be many who are really 
subdued unto God, and have a faith in Jesus which 
is full, and saving, who are yet hindered by their 
theological views from taking the blessing which is 
already at the very door of their hearts. 

In truth, we are not deciding upon any case; 
only God can do that, and it seems better to be 
thought harsh and uncharitable than “ to sew pillows 
in arm-holes,” and cry peace, peace, where God has 
not spoken peace. 

The following sketch, furnished on request by a 
friend, will help to illustrate the experience we are 
studying. 

“Go to thy friends and tell them how great things 
the Lord hath done for thee” 

“ My early childhood did not pass without re¬ 
ligious impressions. My mother loved God ; and 
some of my earliest recollections, are of times when 
she used to take me with her, to her closet, for 
prayer. I had also an older sister who strove to 
lead those with whom she associated to love, obey, 
and trust the Master to whom she had consecrated 
her life. I well remember the earnestness with 
which, when I was a mere child, she used to plead 
with me to give my heart to the Saviour. And 
many times in my girlish days I felt that I ought to 
be a Christian, and that I would give myself to God. 


SECOND CON VERSTON. 


275 


“ At this time, however, my ideas of God, and of a 
religious life, were confined and very untrue. I 
thought of God with awe and dread ; I feared to 
disobey him lest he should visit me with judgments, 
and the thought of everlasting punishment was a 
source of torment to me. A consistent Christian 
life, I supposed, must necessarily be one of gloom 
and sadness ; I thought it ought to be made up of 
fasting and prayer, of self-denial and cross-bearing, 
and the rejection of all that was beautiful and de¬ 
sirable in life. I was convinced that I ought to be a 
Christian, yet I shrank from such a life as a Chris¬ 
tian’s seemed ; and by and by, my religious impres¬ 
sions wore away; and I became wild, wayward, and 
almost reckless, in regard to my soul’s salvation. 

“Now, it seems very strange to me, that I ever 
imbibed such distorted and untrue views of a godly 
life. My mother, and the sister I have mentioned, 
were exceedingly sweet-spirited persons, and their 
daily life spoke of joyful communion with God, and 
of strength received from on high 

“In the year 1852, God was pleased to visit the 
little village in which I resided with a shower of 
divine grace. Meetings were held from evening to 
evening ; at first I did not attend, but after a time, 
partly out of curiosity, and partly to please a friend, 
I went. The sermon that evening was on the rea¬ 
sonableness of religion. God’s claims upon all his 
creatures were presented in such a lucid manner, 
that I became convinced that it was just, right and 


276 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


desirable, that all should become his subjects, his 
children. I saw in son^ degree the sinfulness of 
my hard, stubborn and rebellious heart. After the 
sermon all in the house were requested to kneel in 
silent prayer. I never shall forget the deep impres¬ 
sion that was made upon my mind by the solemn 
death-like stillness that prevailed while all were thus 
bowed before God. The next day was Sunday,—I 
attended meeting all day, listening attentively, even 
anxiously, to the word of God, yet was undecided. 
In the evening the house was crowded ; all my asso¬ 
ciates and acquaintances were present; an oppor¬ 
tunity was given for those who were seeking God 
and desired the prayers of his children to take front 
seats,—I could not go—pride rebelled against it, it 
seemed too humiliating. The next day was passed 
in deep distress of mind, yet I was still anxious to 
conceal my feelings from all my friends. In the 
evening God spoke to me, by his servant, these 
words : ‘ For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and 
of my words, of him shall the Son of man be 
ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and 
in his Father’s, and of the holy angels.’ I saw now 
that if I would be a Christian, I must be decided. 
When an opportunity was given for the anxious to 
go forward and tell their desires, I hastened to em¬ 
brace it, and spoke of my resolution to seek God 
until I found him, and to devote my life to his 
service. 

The next evening I went to the meeting with my 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


27 ? 


heart full of love, and of joy. I had found Jesus, 
the friend of sinners, and found him my friend, my 
Saviour, and I longed to tell all my associates, 
everybody indeed, about it. How precious Jesus 
seemed, and how near to me ! It was wonderful. 
Could I ever grow cold or indifferent; could I 
ever backslide and wound the Saviour, my Saviour, 
afresh? 0, no, never, never ! I would do every 
duty, bear every cross, live at his feet and not wan¬ 
der as I knew others had done. Alas, how little I 
knew of my own weakness, of my inability to keep 
myself doing all these things ! 

“ I do not remember how long I continued in this 
state of mind. A decline in spirituality usually 
comes, I suppose so stealthily that we are not aware 
of its approach. I did not realize my wanderings 
till I was far away. I think I was as punctual in 
attendance at all the meetings of the church, and on 
all the outward observances and duties of the Chris¬ 
tian as church members usually are, perhaps more 
so than some, for church-going had long been a 
fixed habit with me. I used to enjoy some sweet 
refreshing visits of the Holy Spirit, when my soul 
would be full of joy, and aspirations after a higher 
and better life would be felt. Then again I would 
lose the Saviour’s presence, and his yoke would be¬ 
come heavy and the cross hard to bear; my sky 
would become all dark. My life was one of ups and 
downs ; it was a constant warfare, often a painful 
struggle. I was divided in my affections between 


278 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


religion and the world ; half-hearted in my attach¬ 
ment to Christ; and troubled with restless cravings 
for questionable, if not forbidden pleasures. I had 
too much principle to forsake religious duties, and 
too little love to submit easily to the -sacrifices duty 
required. Some six years after I united with the 
church I found myself so far backslidden from God, 
that I had ceased to think much of my Saviour or 
of my relations to him ; and yet a knowledge of my 
state did not trouble me much, for I flattered my¬ 
self that most of the church were in the same condi¬ 
tion. 

“ About this time in a conversation with my 
mother on the subject of religion, I dropped a care¬ 
less remark which revealed to her the state of my 
mind, and sent sadness and pain to her heart. She 
sought her refuge, and with tears and entreaties, 
carried my case before him who is able to save. 
Soon after she sent me a letter, dictated as I believe 
by the Holy Spirit, for it went straight to my heart 
and did its work. I was aroused and became 
troubled with a sense of my condition. The Holy 
Spirit was now being poured out again in our vil¬ 
lage. Meetings were being held from day to day ; 
I attended them, and my heart was opened to receive 
the word of God. 

es How there followed for many weeks a season of 
deep darkness, and even agony of soul. My mind 
was full of most painful questionings. Was I ever 
converted ? Did I ever truly love God ? Were 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


279 


there any Christians who did love him with the 
whole heart ? Was there any reality in religion ? 
Was there a God ? and had he power to control the 
lives of his children ? All this time I was reading 
mv Bible carefully and praying for the enlighten¬ 
ment of the Holy Spirit, that I might know what 
God required of me—what it was to be a Bible Chris¬ 
tian. Soon I saw, as I had never seen before, what 
a great thing it is to be a Christian. I saw how 
exceeding broad God’s commands are, and that he 
requires implicit obedience. I saw that if I would 
be accepted by him I must be his, wholly his, without 
reserve, now and forever. Then the question arose, 

‘ are you willing to make this consecration of your¬ 
self to God ?’ I hesitated—the cross seemed great, 
I thought my life would be one of slavery, of pain¬ 
ful self-denial; I should be circumscribed in every¬ 
thing. Could I go to God for counsel and follow 
his will in regard to my dress, my reading, my asso¬ 
ciates ; in fact in regard to everything ? Must I 
give up all my own plans—however dearly cher¬ 
ished, and seek and follow God’s plan instead? 
must my will be nothing, henceforth and forever, 
and God’s will all in all ? Then the thought would 
come, how circumspect I must be in all my deport¬ 
ment ; all my words and actions must glorify God, 
and I must 4 be instant in season and out of sea¬ 
son,’ to confess all that the Lord had done for me, 
before the church and the world ; and this I felt 
would be a great trial. It seemed to me at times 


280 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


that the Lord was requiring of me more than 
I had power to give ; and yet my Bible and my 
reason told me that it was no more than was just 
and right, that it was indeed the only true way to 
live. 

“ Weeks passed away while I w T as in this state, 
during which all these questions, and many more, 
were being brought in all their bearings before my 
mind. They were weeks of darkness, in which God 
hid his face from me, and I was made to feel my 
utter helplessness, my unworthiness, my nothingness, 
as never before. I was, at this time, under the pas¬ 
torate of one who had found the better way, the 
way of peace, and was anxious that his flock should 
find it. He held up Jesus ‘ as the way, the truth, 
and the life/ He used to say, Are you willing to con¬ 
secrate yourself and all you have to God—to be laid 
upon the altar a living sacrifice ? Then go to Jesus, 
go like a little child, and just as you are, go and tell 
him all about your stubborn will, your hard, cold 
heart, all about yourself, and yield all up to him. 
Let him teach you and guide you. Trust him that 
he will do for you all he has promised to do, trust 
him not because you are in the least worthy, but 
just because he has promised. Do not dishonor him 
by doubting his word. There is efficacy in his blood, 
it can cleanse from all sin/ 

“ At last, I was enabled to say, yes I will go,— 
Jesus I will, I do, come to thee. 


SECOND CONVERSION . 


281 


" Just as I am,—without one plea, 

But that thy blood was shed for me, 

And that thou bidd’st me come to thee, 

O Lamb of God I come ! ” 

“Very soon, from my inmost heart I could say, 
I can come. 

‘ Just as I am—for love unknown 
Has broken every barrier down. 

Now to be thine, yea thine alone, 

O, Lamb of God, I come 1 ’ 

“For some time after this consecration was 
made I experienced no particular change in my feel¬ 
ings ; only, I had a deep inward sense of not being 
my own, that I was the Lord’s now ; and a feeling 
of rest, and patient waiting. After a little, peace 
came, peace like a river, deep, quiet, full, indescriba¬ 
ble, God’s peace, and with it an abiding sense of his 
presence. Still later, love and joy seemed to come 
bubbling, gushing up in my heart till it was full, 
unutterably full. It was not the ecstatic joy that I 
had felt at my conversion, but I seemed filled with 
God, and with a sacred awe, and a very heaven of 
deep, silent love. At times the effect was almost 
overpowering ; it seemed to me that my bodily frame 
could scarcely bear more. 

Still, I was not satisfied. I felt that I was but 
a babe in Christ; that I had but just come into a 
condition to be a disciple, a learner in Christ’s 
school. 0 how gladly I received instruction ! My 


282 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


desire for it, for a deeper knowledge of God was like 
hunger and thirst. God’s wisdom, power, and love 
seemed to me like an ocean in which I might bathe, 
ever bathe and find new delight, fresh joy continu¬ 
ally. 

“ Now, when I write, a number of years have 
passed since the blessed time I have spoken of. 
During all those years Jesus has been my most in¬ 
timate and familiar friend. My joy has ebbed and 
flowed, but trust in God, and peace in him have 
been habitual. I have not been without trials, and 
temptations, and sadness ; I do not expect to be in 
this world,—but I can testify from my experience 
that God is able to keep, that his grace is sufficient, 
that with every temptation there is a way of escape, 
that his strength is made perfect in weakness. 

“ Yes, I nave found Jesus an ever present, ever 
faithful, all sufficient friend. And still my cry is, 

‘ Nearer my God to thee, nearer to thee, 

Even though it be a cross—that raiseth me.’ ” 

The following taken from the Religious Herald , 
is entitled. 

RENEWED CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

" We take the following letter from the Western Recorder f 
written by a lovely Christian woman, formerly a resident of 
our city, believing that it may cause some doubting disciples, 
of which there are many among us, to seek that assurance of 
faith which has brought so much joy and comfort to our be¬ 
loved sister: 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


283 


“ I have especial reasons to thank God for the 
meetings held in our church. You know I have 
always felt insecure, unsettled in my religious life. 
I tried to do my duty. I believed in God. But so 
often when others spoke of realizing that Christ was 
their personal Saviour I felt that they had some¬ 
thing which I had not. I tried to tell you, but you 
had so much faith in me that you could not believe 
me. I tried to tell my pastor here, but he thought 
the same and suggested promises upon which I could 
not lay hold. So I stumbled on, not knowing Jesus. 
Bo not turn away any more poor doubting souls 
with the vague counsel, ‘ 0, we all have our doubts 
at times ; it will come all right again.’ Mr. P.’s 
plain words set me to thinking, and I finally settled 
my status. I was like Nicodemus and Cornelius. 
They worshiped God. They prayed. They tried 
to do right, yet Christ said to the one, ‘Ye must be 
born again/ and Peter was sent to the other in 
order that he might receive the Spirit. 

“ I had lost sight of Christ, When I heard skeptics 
doubt the divinity of Christ, I was conscious of spec¬ 
ulating myself. I did not have a belief down in my 
heart that could not be shaken, as I knew I had that 
there was a God. 

“ I went one evening after service to Mr. P. He 
did not know me as you and others did, and could be 
candid. He looked at me and said slowly : * The 
safety of a soul may not be trifled with. Ho one 
can say that Jesus is the Christ unless the Father 


284 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


giveth it him, but when he receives that gift you 
might ask a man roused from midnight sleep, and 
be would tell you yes !’ How do you think I felt ? 
He Suggested that I should openly come forward for 
prayers among the inquirers. I told him I feared 
that would be a sin, as there were persons and skep¬ 
tics there who would say, What is your religion 
worth if it will not keep and support those who 
profess to be Christians ? He simply said : ‘ You 
know not what work the Lord has for you to do. 
You know not how many may be led to examine 
their title, when they see that even you are not 
sure. 

“ I did not know what to do, but walked into the 
church. It was nearly dark, and the church was 
empty. I went to the front, and all alone fell upon 
my knees and prayed for light. I could not say 
anything but ‘light—light to see Jesus.’ I was 
suddenly roused by the voice of the minister open¬ 
ing the night service. The house had been lighted 
and had filled with people while I had been all the 
while utterly unconscious. I took my seat in the 
front pew appropriated to inquirers, and I continued 
to occupy that seat from Tuesday to Saturday morn¬ 
ing. I determined to find out if possible what I 
needed, and despite of my own mortification and 
the protest of my dearest Christian friends that I was 
denying Christ, I continued to make that my place 
in the house of God. My soul was in deep trouble. 

“On Friday night a dear friend said to me, 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


285 


‘ Do you believe that Jesus was an impostor ?’ 
The question startled me. I trembled. 4 Jesus an 
impostor /’ 0 no ! no ! a thousand times no ! I 

could not get rid of the horror. ‘ Impostor 9 
seemed ringing in my ears. I felt that my want of 
full belief in him was a terrible sin. 

“ At the Saturday morning meeting the minister 
read several passages of Scripture describing the tests 
by which we might know whether we were truly 
Christians. Light broke into my soul. My sad heart 
was comforted. Jesus gave me the assurance I longed 
for, that he is my own Saviour. The meeting was a 
sweet and precious one to me. And now I would 
not take the world for the strength and faith I have 
at last. If dark days come, this will be a landmark 
to me : ‘ I know that my Redeemer liveth.’ 

“I believe I was converted before when in my 
early youth I united with the church. But there is 
a reality, a life in religion which I never knew be¬ 
fore. * * * Some fifteen or twenty of the members 
of the church have in a similar way humbled them¬ 
selves, sought as wanderers the prayers of God’s 
saints and obtained this blessing of assurance 
through faith in Jesus. Some say they never before 
knew the peace and joy of heart-trust in Christ, and 
doubt that they were ever before converted. Some 
tell me that this movement of professing Christians 
has unsettled the faith of half the church, but I feel 
like leaving all consequences in the hands of the 
Lord. 


286 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


“ A week after I received the following stanzas 
expressing the peace and joy of conscious trust in 
Jesus : 

‘ The secret of the Lord is ivith them that fear him? 

“ Nobody knows what I have in my heart ! 

A fountain of rapturous joys ; 

A faith that exultingly bears me aloft 
Over earth and its glittering toys. 

“ Nobody knows what I have in my heart! 

The Presence from over the ark, 

A glory that turns every bitter to sweet, 

An illuming that scatters the dark. 

'* Nobody knows what I have in my heart, 

Now Jesus, the Master, has come; 

He deigns in a soul so unworthy as mine 
To abide, and make it his home. 

“ Nobody knows what I have in my heart; 

A peace like a river that flows, 

A yearning of love that would bless the whole world, 
Nobody, nobody knows.” 

Sketches of personal experience like these 
might be gathered in great numbers were it desira¬ 
ble. Let us thank God that very many are coming 
to know Christ as their living, present personal 
Saviour. This last is selected because the writer evi¬ 
dently had no preconceived, theory in regard to the 
experience,—had not been studying “ Guides to Ho- ; 
liness ” or anything of the sort. She simply hum 




SECOND CONVERSION. 


287 


gered and thirsted for righteousness, went to Jesus 
and was filled. 

If such movement of professing Christians unset¬ 
tles, as she says they tell her, the faith of half the 
church, the sooner it is unsettled the better. Mul¬ 
titudes are resting their hopes of a happy eternity 
upon, they know not what, and are going they know 
not where. 0, for an awakening of those who are 
at ease in Zion ! 

It is doubtless to be expected that any who tell 
of such an experience as this will be misunderstood, 
and may very likely be misrepresented; but let 
them not on that account put on any of the airs of 
martyrdom, nor cry out persecution. We see this 
done sometimes, and it is not a pleasant sight. 

And just here, begging pardon of any who may 
be wounded by the remark, the writer feels com¬ 
pelled to say that his observation and experience 
during the years that have passed since he came to 
know this great salvation, have led him to think 
that “Holiness Meetings” and gatherings for the 
express purpose of promoting the “ Higher Life,” 
may, and do sometimes become, when continued 
as an institution, a sort of “mutual admiration 
societies,” and tend to foster spiritual pride, and 
cause a separation of those who attend them from 
the rest of the church, which works harm. He has 
known cases where the kindest possible reproof of 
what seemed an error or a fault,* gave deep and last¬ 
ing offence to those who made high profession of 


288 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


sanctification. No doubt it is one of the pleasant¬ 
est things in the world to be surrounded by those 
who wholly believe in us, and sympathize with us, 
and see no faults in us, but it is not always the 
healthiest for our souls. 

Let us then separate ourselves, as little as possi¬ 
ble from even the weakest of those who are trying 
to walk the Christian path, and if we are misunder¬ 
stood and misrepresented, let us remember that 
“ this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward 
God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.” If we 
have become as truly self-renouncedas a consecrated 
Christian should be, the buffetings we get, whether 
for faults or for doing well will not wound us deeply. 
Over-sensitiveness to blame, or even to sneers and 
slights, shows that self is still too important a factor 
in our religious life. 

“ 0, to be nothing, nothing, 

Only to lie at his feet,” 

An earthen “ and emptied vessel, 

For the Master’s use made meet.” 

And let us remember, while we tell the story of 
salvation as we have learned it, and tell it fearlessly, 
for Jesus’ sake, that we are but learners yet, that we 
do not know it all, and are very liable to be mis¬ 
taken. Therefore let us tell it humbly, keeping I 
out of sight as much as may be, and be patient if 
our testimony is not received. Only the Holv 
Spirit can demonstrate the truth so that it shail 


SECOND CONVERSION. 


289 


have power. If we have really learned the deeper 
lessons of the gospel, if we have become more “ spir¬ 
itual ” than some of our fellow-disciples, we should, 
instead of being separated from them be drawn 
towards them by such a brooding, mother-like 
spirit as filled Paul when he wrote to the Galatians, 
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth 
again, until Christ be formed in you.” 

Brethren suffer this word of exhortation. “ And 
the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I 
pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be 
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who 
also will do it.” 


XII. 

THE OFFICES AND WORK OF THE HOLY 
SPIRIT. 

“ And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another 
Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.” 

John xiv: 16. 

The work which is done by the Holy Spirit in 
awakening, convicting, converting, and sanctifying 
the soul has been much before us—necessarily so in 
the preceding essays. The subject is not, however, 
exhausted ; and to those who love God, it cannot be. 

The personality of the Spirit, and his relations 
to the Father and Son, will almost certainly be more 
or less in the mind of all earnest Christians. Still 
it is hardly necessary that we should fully under¬ 
stand the matter in order to receive the blessings 
which it is his office to bring to us. 

Some time since, an aged sister in the Lord said 
to her pastor that she had been much troubled of 
late because she could not, in her prayers seem to 
distinguish between the Father, Son, and Spirit. 
The reply of the pastor was, that for himself, he had 
for a long time almost ceased to think about such 
distinction. Jesus said, “If any man love me he 


WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


291 


will keep my words, and my Father will love him 
and we will come unto him and make our abode 
with him.” The meaning of this must be, that in 
the loving and obedient heart the Holy Spirit will 
abide, revealing there the Father and the Son. If he 
comes, then the whole God-head comes ; and if we 
may enjoy God and his love, we need not be greatly 
troubled if we cannot analyze his personalities. 

Mr. Boardman, in “ The Higher Christian Life,” 
says, “ The Father is the fulness of the God-head in 
invisibility without form, whom no creature hath 
seen or can see. 

The Son is the fulness of the God-head embodied 
that his creatures may see him, and know him, and 
trust him. 

The Spirit is the fulness of the God-head in all 
the active workings, whether of creation, providence, 
revelation, or salvation by which God manifests 
himself to and through the universe. Alluding to 
the Son’s being called the Word, he formulates the 
idea thus, 

“ The Father is like the thought unexpressed , 

The Son is like the thought expressed in words , 

The Spirit is like the word working in other 
minds.” 

Mr. Walker, in the “Doctrine of the Holy 
Spirit” develops strongly the same thought. And 
further, speaking of the work of the Spirit, he says, 

“ § 10 —The Holy Spirit uses the personality of 
Christ in the work of Redemption . 


292 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


“ Hence we are taught that the Holy Spirjt, when 
he comes to the soul, does not speak of himself,— 
of his own personality, —but he takes of the things 
that belong to Christ, and shows them to the be¬ 
liever. When the soul is conscious of the divine 
presence, it does not recognize two personalities; 
because the Spirit comes clothed in the personality 
of Jesus and its life is bestowed # through the mani¬ 
festations which God makes of himself in his Son.” 

These views cannot be far from the truth, as it 
is revealed in the Scriptures. This much is cer¬ 
tainly true, that the work which God does in human 
hearts, in regenerating and saving men, is done by 
the Holy Spirit; and it is equally true and hardly 
less evident, that all the influences that are exerted 
upon men to induce a turning to God are put forth 
by the same Spirit. 

In and upon, —these words indicate a division 
of the subject, which we may make in studying, the 
Spirit’s work upon a soul. 

A soul that is born of the Spirit must have so 
received him, that he is interior to it, and acts 
directly upon its powers. 

But before this interior and direct action can 
take place, a soul must be so subdued unto God as to 
cease its rebellion, and be willing to receive the 
Spirit; and the work of bringing about this submis¬ 
sion, is equally the work of the Spirit, but is done 
mostly by exterior and indirect influences. 

The exterior and indirect work of the Spirit . 


WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


293 


This is first in order, and we will study it first. 

The seminal principle—the seed—in the genera¬ 
tion of a spiritual life , is the word of God. 

This should never for a moment be forgotten. 

God’s children are “ born ” or begotten “ again, not 
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word 
of God which liveth and abideth forever.” Paul 
said to the Corinthians, “ In Jesus Christ I have 
begotten you through the gospel. ” 

But the word of God is effective in awakening 
and converting men only as it is made “ quick ”—or 
living—“and powerful,” by the present action of 
the Spirit. “ The letter of the word alone can never 
give life. If the Holy Spirit were to leave the 
world, we have no reason to believe that another 
human soul would ever be so awakened as to seek 
after God. 

It is also a part of God’s plan that the word of 
God shall be preached by living men who have 
themselves felt its power, and come to love it. By 
the foolishness of preaching God will save them that 
believe. He will have the waters of salvation flow 
out from those who have themselves drank of them. 
And yet no preaching is effective except as it is 
made powerful by the Spirit. Paul may plant and 
Apollos may water but God the Spirit must work 
with them or there is no growth. 

It will be a narrow and imperfect view of the 
work of preaching the gospel if we confine it to 
what is technically called preaching. Instead of 


294 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


this, we must think of it as including everything 
that is done by disciples of Christ to make the good 
news of salvation by Christ known to others. Every 
effort made by tongue or pen to make Jesus known 
is preaching the gospel. Nor must we confine our 
thought to direct effort. Jesus said to his followers 
“Ye are the light of the world. Let your light 
shine.” We cannot think of light as trying to 
shine. If it is not covered up it must shine ; that 
is its nature. So Cod’s children must show forth 
Christ, if Christ is in them. Every true Christian 
life is the gospel incarnate. This the world under¬ 
stands, better, it may be than we think, and there 
is no preaching so effective as holy living. 

Dr. Chalmers said: “There is an energy of 
moral suasion in a good man’s life, passing the 
highest efforts of the orator’s genius. The seen, but 
silent beauty of holiness speaks more eloquently of 
God and of duty than the tongues of men and of 
an-gels. Christianity itself, I believe, owes by far 
the greater part of its moral power, not to the pre¬ 
cepts or parables of Christ, but to his own charac¬ 
ter. The beauty of that holiness which is enshrined 
in the four brief biographies of the man of Naza¬ 
reth has done more and will do more to regenerate 
the world, and bring in everlasting righteousness, 
than all the other agencies put together. It has 
done more to spread his religion in the world, than 
all that has ever been preached or written on the 
evidences of Christianity.” 


WORK OF THE HOLT SPIRIT. 


295 


Now holy living is the consequence, and the 
proof, of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in 
the soul; and so, all the moral power of all the holy 
lives Christianity has given to the world is indirectly 
the power of the Holy Spirit. 

There is still another mode of action by which 
the Spirit exerts a saving power upon men. 

Paul said to the Corinthians, that his preaching 
among them had been “ not with enticing words of 
man’s wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit.” 
By demonstration of the Spirit he must mean the 
action of the Spirit in applying truth to the minds 
and hearts of sinners, “ enlightening the eyes of 
their understanding,” so as to make them feel the 
force of the truth. This also is properly a part of 
the exterior and indirect action of the Spirit. We 
must not think of him as entering into sinners’ 
hearts, while he would yet be an unwelcomed and 
stranger guest, but rather as an invisible friend, 
watching and waiting around them, bearing pa¬ 
tiently with their rebellion and their sin, though he 
must loathe and hate it, and seeking continually for 
the most favorable moment to whisper the call of 
mercy, or throw into them the sharp arrows of con¬ 
victing truth, and then, when that truth has done 
its work, to reveal Christ and the cross to them, and 
so the forgiveness of sins, and a hope of salvation. 

In this line also, we must believe, is his work 
upon a multitude of those who call themselves chil¬ 
dren of God. He does not come into their hearts, 


296 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


only as he visits them now and then, seeking to 
win them to a closer union with God; but he is 
continually watching over them, even when they 
are wandering like sheep astray upon the wild dark 
mountains, far from the shepherd and the fold. 
Hardly less painful must this be, than watching 
over careless sinners. Indeed it may well be that it 
grieves him more ; for many do what is hardly less 
than to “ crucify the Son of God afresh and put 
him to an open shame.” And even where there is 
correct deportment and outward observance of 
morality and religious duties, he must see in many 
a heart unbelief so deep and dark, and such indul¬ 
gence in heart sins, as to utterly preclude his enter¬ 
ing in and abiding there. And yet he waits and 
watches, and pleads with the wanderer, seeking by 
one means or another to lead him back, and if it 
may be, to so subdue him to Christ that the heart 
will be opened at last, and himself welcomed as 
master and keeper of the whole being. 

When he does come in this way to be master, 
then the direct or interior action which has been 
spoken of begins. 

This direct , interior action , is a true and proper 
inspiration. 

Does this startle you ! It need not. An inspi¬ 
ration is an inbreathing, and when the Holy Spirit 
comes to a human soul, he breathes himself in upon 
it, that is all. 

The effect of this inbreathing, we should con- 


WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


297 


elude from a priori reasoning, must be, to so per 
vade the human spirit, as to modify and regulate its 
action, conforming it to the mind and will of God ; 
and so to reveal God to its consciousness as to give 
it a blessed sense of union, of oneness with God. 

Now it is just this that the Bible teaches us to 
expect from the indwelling of the Spirit; and just 
this which is realized by those who receive him. 

But in studying his work in the soul, we shall be 
aided by thinking of certain specific things which 
the Bible teaches us he will do for us. 

THE COMFORTER. 

Jesus said to the disciples, “If I go away I will 
send the Comforter to abide with you forever.” 
The Comforter—we have reason to rejoice that 
Jesus used that word. It more than suggests that 
he did not forget, even in the hour when the dark 
shadow of his own unparalleled sufferings was fall¬ 
ing upon him, that his followers would have that to 
meet in this world, which would make a Comforter 
very needful and very precious to them. 

Jesus, my Lord, I thank thee that thou dost 
never forget—thy sufferings did not, and thy glory 
does not, make thee forget thy weak, and often 
weary ones who are treading earth’s thorny path. 

A desire for happiness is as natural to every 
human being as the desire for food. It is as nearly 
an instinct as anything about us, and is doubtless 
implanted in us by our Creator. It is depraved 
13 * 


298 BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 

now, together with our appetites and propensities, 
and may be thought of as the leader of them all in 
rebellion against God’s law. Certainly, wherever it 
rules in a soul, God does not rule. 

And yet God made ns to be happy—made us to 
desire happiness, and our true spiritual welfare re¬ 
quires, not so much the annihilation of the desire, 
as its control and direction. 

In the old days of monkish aceticism it appears 
to have been thought that if one aspired to be holy, 
he must almost cease to be a man ; must cut himself 
off from all ordinary association with his fellows, 
and deny himself the most simple and innocent 
gratifications of sense. We do not think this now ; 
we do not think that holiness requires celibacy, a 
home in a secluded cave, a hair-cloth shirt, and 
weakening fasts and vigils. And, yet, are we sure, 
quite sure, that our freedom is not largely freedom 
from the desire and purpose to be holy, rather than 
from wrong notions of the way of holiness ? Are 
there not many among us to whom religion is easy, 
only because it is a careless, slipshod sort of religion ? 
When we seriously try to be religious do we not feel 
ourselves fettered and confined, as though we were 
in a sort of strait jacket ? Do we not have a sort of 
half-defined feeling that a good hearty laugh will 
grieve the Spirit; and that really holy persons must 
be long-faced and sad, and rather uncomfortable as 
companions ? Who of us has not heard, many 
times, the remark, most solemnly uttered, “ Jesus 


WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


299 


never laughed. He wept, but it is not said that he 
ever laughed?” Probably, ascetic notions have their 
roots in human nature, and will never wholly cease. 

Yet the type of a developed Christian, given us 
by Jesus, was a little child ; and who ever knew a 
healthy, unspoiled little child that was not glad- 
hearted, joyous ? God’s children are commanded, 
indeed, to rejoice evermore ; and it is wronging our 
Father to suppose he is better pleased with us when 
we are sad. 

We ought, no doubt, to be careful how we seek 
happiness in earthly sources, in the indulgence of 
our senses, our appetites, and our propensities. It 
is easy to be led by these out of the strait and nar¬ 
row path, into the by-ways of hurtful and sinful 
pleasure. 

The problem is how to be happy, cheerfully, joy¬ 
ously happy, to rejoice as God commands, and yet 
not seek happiness in any selfish or sinful way, nor 
seek it as an end. 

This problem is solved by the coming of the 
Comforter. When he breathes himself in upon a 
human soul he sheds upon it a joy so far excelling 
all joys that earth and sense can give, that such joys 
pale and fade away before it, as the stars pale and 
go out when the sun rises. Beyond all question, 
the soul in which the Comforter abides has a fore¬ 
taste of the joys of heaven, has, “ an earnest of his 
inheritance,” and is by this made independent of 
earthly sources of enjoyment. Many there are who 


300 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


can testify of this independence. Payson said, in 
his last illness, “I have been all my life like a 
child whose father wishes to fix his undivided atten¬ 
tion. At first the child runs about the room, but 
his father ties up his feet; then he plays with his 
hands, until they likewise are tied. Thus he con¬ 
tinues to do, till he is completely tied up ; then 
when he can do nothing else he will attend to his 
father. Just so God has been dealing with me to 
induce me to place my happiness in him alone. 
But I blindly continued to look for it here, and God 
has kept cutting off one source of enjoyment after 
another, till I find that I can do without them all, 
and yet enjoy more happiness than ever in my life 
before.” 

What Payson seems to have fully learned only 
upon a dying bed, others have been taught while in 
the midst of life and labor. None of us need think 
that such experiences are only for the dying. They 
are for all God’s children, and for them now, if they 
will but yield up all to their Father, and receive the 
Comforter to their hearts. Then they shall not 
only know the peace that passeth all understanding, 
and the joy that excels all other, but the peace shall 
keep them, and the joy shall be their strength. 

Many religious people speak lightly of the joy of 
the Lord. They say, “one must serve God from 
principle and a sense of duty and not from feeling.” 

Doubtless there is truth in their thought, but 
there is also error. David sang, “ Restore unto me 


WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 301 

the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy 
free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy way 
and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” 

He felt that he could not be a successful worker 
for God without the joy of the Lord in his heart; 
and what he needed we need no less. 

But, the name by which Jesus called the Spirit 
and which is translated The Comforter, may be quite 
as correctly rendered 

THE ADVOCATE. 

The Holy Spirit is the Advocate of the people 
of God. But how ? He is not their Advocate in 
heaven, before the throne ; Jesus is the Intercessor 
there, and ever liveth to make intercession for us.” 
But here, and now he is our Advocate because he is 
the inspirer and director of all true prayer. 

Strange notions, in regard to prayer, abound in 
the world; abound too among orthodox Christian peo¬ 
ple. The worshiper of the Grand Lama, who fastens 
his written prayer upon a wooden cylinder and ma¬ 
king it revolve, thinks his God will give him credit for 
everytime it turns up ; and the Romish devotee who 
counts off his Pater Nosters by the help of his string 
of beads, thinking God is propitiated by his repeti¬ 
tions, are not the only people in the world whose 
ideas of prayer are crude and wrong. 

The irreverent wit, who said, “ Sir, that prayer 
was the most eloquent prayer ever addressed to a 
Boston audience ”—undoubtedly “ hit in the white,” 


302 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT . 


not only that but many public prayers. They are 
addressed to the audience not to God. They are a 
part of the perfunctory services of the pulpit and 
prayer-room, and are gone through with, because 
praying (i is down in the programme.” 

Other prayers are the mere repetitions of a form, 
sometimes of a printed form, but quite as often, of 
a form that has made itself. By being repeated 
time after time, certain phrases and Scripture texts 
wear ruts, as it were, in the memory, so that the 
prayer once started seems to roll on of itself, even 
when one is thinking of something else, or is more 
than half asleep. 

Of course the Divine Advocate can have little or 
nothing to do with such prayers, and it is hard to 
see how any one can suppose God to care for them 
otherwise than to feel insulted by them. 

But what is true, acceptable prayer ? 

1. It is communion with God. 

“ He that cometh to God must believe that he 
is, and is a rewarder of such as diligently seek him.” 
And not only this, but he must be conscious of 
God’s presence, and of ability to talk to him and be 
heard. How can one attain this ? How can a sin¬ 
ner gain an audience with the great God ? It is 
the office of the Advocate to reveal God to the soul 
sense. Jesus was God manifest in the flesh—the 
Holy Spirit is Jesus manifest in the heart of a dis¬ 
ciple. Jesus said, “ I will not leave you comfort¬ 
less, I will come to you.” He came when the Spirit 


WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


303 


came ;—he comes now where the Spirit comes ; and 
when he comes he enables the soul to talk with God 
as one talks with a friend. 

But how may I know when he comes to my 
heart, and that I do truly commune with him ? 

Well, not by the mere fact that you have what is 
called freedom in prayer. It is an error that many 
fall into, to think that a gush of emotion and an 
easy flow of words in prayer is proof of the aid of 
the Holy Spirit. Various things may contribute to 
produce an exalted state of feeling, and give freedom 
in praying, or preaching, or religious talking, when 
the Spirit has really nothing to do with it. 

One of the best signs of the Spirit’s presence is 
such an abasement of one’s self, such a sense of 
one’s utter weakness and vileness, and such an awe 
before God, as would seem incompatible with free¬ 
dom and fluency. Many times God’s holiest chil¬ 
dren find themselves so overcome in this way as to 
be almost unable to pray coherently ; and especially 
when alone with God, they can often do nothing 
but wait before him in silence, and adoringly 
reach out toward his will. They have boldness 
before him, but it is not the boldness of self-con¬ 
fidence ; they are made bold by a sense of his in¬ 
finite love; and they are enabled to be bold because 
they are 

—“ too self-renounced for fears.” 

2. But prayer is also petition —is the expression 


304 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


to God of the desire felt in the soul for some bless¬ 
ing which it is felt God can give. 

In this form of prayer it is always implied that 
the praying one has faith in God as one who not 
only has power to do what is asked, but is also will¬ 
ing to be influenced by the prayer of his child. 
Else the prayer itself is mockery—is a direct insult 
to God. 

“But,” says one, “how can the prayer of a 
finite and an erring mortal change the mind and 
plans of the Deity ? I believe that the only effect 
of prayer is the effect it produces upon the one who 
prays. ” 

Well if that be all, must we not look upon many 
things that we find in the Bible as calculated to de¬ 
ceive us ? There is nothing that a plain man, who 
believingly reads the Bible, will find more clearly 
taught there, than that God is influenced by the 
prayers of his children. 

Besides, there is hardly an earnest Christian any¬ 
where who has not found, scattered along his own 
life, answers to prayer so direct and immediate as to 
be quite startling. God seems to love to prove to 
his believing children, that he is truly a living, 
personal God who can hear and answer them. 

The philosophy of “prevailing prayer” appears 
to be hard to understand with many. Is not this 
the reason that it is so ? they try to solve its most 
difficult problems without taking the work of the 
Divine Advocate into account as one of the factors. 


WORK OF THE HOLT SPIRIT. 


305 


Paul wrote to the Romans, “ Likewise the Spirit 
also helpeth our infirmities ; for we know not what 
we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit it¬ 
self maketh intercession for us with groanings 
which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth 
the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit 
because he maketh intercession for the saints accord¬ 
ing to the will of God.” 

Now suppose that I have some strong desires 
which I wish to bring before God in prayer,—I 
read these words of inspiration and drink in their 
spirit. I shall see at once that of myself I do not, 
and cannot, know all the things that are proper sub¬ 
jects of prayer. I may undoubtedly spread out all 
my desires with perfect freedom before my Father; 
I know that he loves to have me open my whole 
heart to him,—but this is not all I want,—I have 
special petitions to urge, what must I do ? 

This first, I must seek the endorsement of the 
Advocate, the Holy Spirit. Until I have this I can¬ 
not plead for specific blessings. How shall I ob¬ 
tain it ? 

I may have it in advance, if the blessing I would 
seek, is one specifically promised in God’s word. If 
I desire to be led into the truth as it is in Jesus, if 
I would be more holy, if I would be filled with the 
Spirit, if I would ask that God’s kingdom may come 
and his will be done in the earth, I do not need the 
endorsement of the Spirit. He has already given it 
to me. But I may need his help in order that I 


306 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


may pray as I ought. In all this class of petitions 
the work of the advocate is to kindle within us the 
strong desire, and enable us to exercise an un¬ 
clouded, undoubting faith. 

But. if the blessing be not one that is specifically 
promised, what then ? Well, then, if the blessed 
Advocate is in my heart, he will first enable me to 
feel submission to God’s will. I shall be able to say 
in regard to my most cherished desires not my 
will, but thine my God be done. If I cannot say 
this, if I cannot humbly ask the Spirit to guide me 
in my petition according to his will, I may as well 
be silent, my prayer can have no power. But if I 
can do this, then I may humbly wait before God, 
and urge my suit, and while I wait, it may be that 
the desire for the blessing will grow stronger, and I 
shall see more clearly that giving it may be in har¬ 
mony with God’s will, and a humble boldness may 
grow up in my soul, which will be like that of the 
Syro-phenician woman, not to be denied, and my 
faith may rest upon some such promise as, “ What¬ 
soever ye shall ask in my name that will I do that 
the Father may be glorified in the Son,” and thus I 
may wait, and plead, and expect, till the answer 
comes. 

But, may one gain an assurance that such peti¬ 
tions will be granted? Perhaps not commonly until 
they are granted ; but sometimes the soul may gain 
an assurance, even while in prayer, that gives 
perfect rest. Still it will probably be safer not to 


WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


307 


prophesy the coming of the blessing, before it 
comes. Sometimes God’s children will, while in 
prayer, feel a strange, sweet sense of God’s love 
come over them, which they may take for an affirma¬ 
tive answer, when as the result proves, it is only a 
very loving negative. 

But how may I know when the Advocate helps 
my infirmities and pleads in me according to the 
will of God? 

Chiefly by faith. You may be sure that he is 
always faithful to his mission, is doing what he is 
sent to do. In addition to this, a sense of union 
with God, and the ability to say from the heart 
“ Thy will be done,” is very good evidence of his 
presence. 

We may be sure that even when in our hearts 
he “will not speak of himself,” will not proclaim 
his presence, he will make us conscious of Christ’s 
presence, taking the things of Christ and showing 
them unto us ; beyond this he will be known only 
by the results of his presence. 

We conclude then, that prevailing prayer owes its 
power to a true and proper inspiration. The blessed 
Advocate abiding in us, prompts us, inspires us to 
pray for what he knows it will please God to give in 
answer to our prayers. And then he hides himself 
so that the desire, the prayer, the “ groanings which 
cannot be uttered,” seem all our own ; and when the 
answer comes, that too is ours, a blessing granted to 
our petition. 


308 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


The Holy Spirit is also appointed to be 

THE GUIDE 

of the disciples of Christ. Jesus said of him “ He 
shall guide you into all truth.” 

A few years ago, at a Theological Commence¬ 
ment, a band of from fifteen to twenty young men 
pronounced their graduating orations, most of which 
were on themes connected with the work of the 
ministry ; then a theological professor addressed the 
class in a very able manner ; and then at the alumni 
dinner several stirring speeches were made, and 
in all these there was not one full and unmis¬ 
takable utterance in regard to the need of the min¬ 
ister of the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Brains, culture, 
work, these were the elements of success which were 
made specially prominent. 

Now there is no reason to doubt but that all the 
speakers were orthodox in regard to the Holy Spirit, 
but they did not think about him, that is all. 

Brains, culture, work—these are what the 
churches ask for in the ministry. If in addition to 
these they get spirituality, godliness, it is all well ; 
but how large a proportion of the pastors of our land 
are sought and settled because they are men “full 
of the Holy Ghost and of faith.” 

Commentaries on the Scriptures are flooding the 
church. Dr. Gills “ Continent of Mud,” as Robert 
Hall is said to have called his commentary, is out¬ 
grown and is now only an Island in an Archipelago* 


WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


309 


Many of these works are learned and able; they ex¬ 
hibit especially great knowledge of what other men 
have thought, and great skill in making the Scrip¬ 
tures harmonize with the opinions of their authors; 
but often they hardly show deep spiritual insight, 
and one must feel that some things that are revealed 
to babes are hidden from these wise and prudent 
ones. 

It does certainly seem that in these days the 
Holy Spirit is but little thought of as the appointed 
and needed guide of the church. 

Why is this ?—Possibly it may grow in part, out 
of the feelings of disgust and repulsion, which most 
intelligent people have when they see ignorant and 
fanatical enthusiasts, claiming to be taught and led 
by the Spirit. Most of us have seen enough of peo¬ 
ple who thought they were led by spiritual impres¬ 
sions, so that we have no desire to be led in that 
way ; and have heard enough of preachers and ex- 
horters who thought they had only to “ open their 
mouths and the Lord would fill them,” to wish for 
no more of that kind of teaching. Possibly too, 
pride of intellect and culture may have much to do 
with it. 

It will hardly do, however, for us to allow either 
one or the other feeling to turn us away from a 
great gospel truth and gospel blessing. 

But how is the Holy Spirit to be our guide ? 

Certainly, by enabling us to grasp the truth. 

Truth is absolute. Gospel truth is the outflow 


310 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


of the infinite mind of God, and must be perfect as 
his nature. But the truth as it is developed in our 
minds must be modified by many things. Our 
state of heart, our supposed interests, our educa¬ 
tion, our prejudices, the opinions of our friends, all 
these and many other things will affect our recep¬ 
tion of the truth. 

Now let us recall to mind that the coming of the 
Spirit into a human soul is not possession, only in¬ 
spiration. He does not act in place of the soul, but 
just regulates and quickens its action. He breathes 
himself into—pervades with his blessed presence 
every part of it, and so the desires and the will are 
brought into harmony w r ith God and with the truth. 
When this effect is produced, the truth will come in 
of itself, as the light comes in when the doors and 
shutters of a room are closed. 

When the Spirit comes, our interests become so 
blended with God’s interests and will, that they do 
not oppose a full reception of the truth. 

Education and prejudices appear to be harder to 
be overcome than almost any other obstacle. We 
see this illustrated in the case of the apostles. The 
divine enlightenment of the day of Pentecost did 
not remove their Jewish prejudices. These clung 
to them for many years—perhaps they never were 
wholly freed from them. Yet we must believe 
that they were so far overcome as* not to hinder 
greatly the reception and development of the truth. 
As it was then so it is now, education and prejudice 


WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


311 


are hard to overcome, and to their power we must 
attribute largely the divisions that exist among 
those most willing and anxious to be led into all 
truth. Let us hope that a day is coming when even 
these obstacles shall be done away. 

The influence of friends, their opinions and 
wishes is also hard to subdue. 

The love of Jesus in the soul, makes friendship 
dearer and sweeter than it would otherwise be ; and 
when our friends are also friends of Jesus, it is pe¬ 
culiarly pleasant to walk hand in hand with them 
in the heavenward path. But one who would be 
led into all the truth must be prepared to walk alone 
if need be. It will not do for him to yield himself 
implicitly to any but his divine Guide. And it is 
well that when his Guide comes, he can make him 
willing to leave all and follow him. 

It will be clearly seen, it is hoped, that what is 
claimed for those who are guided by the Spirit is 
something very different from infallibility. There 
has been much misapprehension at this point. 
Some, who have felt that they were being guided 
by the Spirit, have hardly been able to see how one 
guided by him could fall into error; and many who 
have watched those who have trusted in his guid¬ 
ance, have not hesitated to charge them with be¬ 
lieving themselves perfect in thought, word, and 
action. Sometimes, probably, such charges have 
been malicious, and persecuting ; but it is believed 
not always. Occasion may have been given for them. 


312 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


It should be remembered, on the one hand, that 
a humble trust in the Holy Spirit, that he will fulfil 
to us the express promises in regard to guidance, 
may consist with a constant fear of going wrong, 
and such a sense of past shortcomings as utterly 
precludes all thought of perfect knowledge or per¬ 
fect service; and on the other, that the Spirit does 
not come to remove our infirmities, but to help to 
overcome them, and enable us, according to the 
measure of our ability, to see and understand the 
truth. He does not give us new revelations, but 
helps us in studying and applying the old. 

In studying,—the idea has been quite prevalent 
in some sections of the church, that if one were led 
by the Spirit, he would not need to study. Preach¬ 
ers have boasted of preaching without study ; and 
many foolish people have thought such preachers 
more sure to be aided by the Spirit. There cannot 
well be a more total misapprehension of the Spirit’s 
work than this. He comes to enable us to study, 
not to enable us to do without it. The apostle’s in¬ 
junction to Timothy, “ Study to show thyself ap¬ 
proved unto God a workman that needeth not to be 
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth,” ought 
to be regarded as an imperative command to all who 
attempt to teach others the way of life. 

0, may our divine Guide so reveal himself to 
our understanding, that while we become humbly 
and believingly dependent on him every moment, 
we may be so without presumption, or neglect of 


WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


313 


our proper duty ; and may diligently work out our 
own salvation, and do all our work, remembering 
that it is God the Spirit that worketh in us, both 
to will and to do all his good pleasure. 

Let us constantly ask him to guide us into all 
truth. 


THE KEEPER. 

“ Except the Lord keep the city the watchman 
waketh but in vain.” 

“ When the enemy comes in like a flood the 
Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against 
him.” 

Probably there are many Christian people who 
do not feel deeply their need of special divine help, 
to enable them to live a Christian life. They expect 
God to help them in a general way—if they help 
themselves, and bless them if they are faithful to 
duty. They are it may be, persons of much self- 
control and self-reliance, and have for their standard 
of Christian attainment to be as good as the average 
of Christian people around them. For them the 
passages quoted above have little meaning. 

There is another class, who have had awakened 
within them a desire and purpose to keep all God’s 
requirements, and be Bible Christians. They have 
set this for their mark. And yet the more they 
have struggled toward it, the farther they seem 
from it. There seems to be a fatal weakness with¬ 
in themselves that causes them to break all their 
14 


314 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


good resolutions and yield to temptation, and fall 
into sin continually. Many of them have become 
discouraged and almost hopeless of ever getting 
near to God. The heart sickness which they feel at 
times is distressing. 

Now what they need is to receive the Holy 
Spirit as the keeper of their hearts. When he 
comes to abide in them, he will be like both a com¬ 
mander and a sleepless, careful sentinel in a for¬ 
tress. Now, “the enemy comes in like a flood,” at 
unexpected times and places, and they are overcome 
almost ere they are aware ; then, no matter how 
stealthily the assault is made, he will be on the 
alert and grasping a standard—the cross—he will 
shout an alarm to the garrison, and lead all the 
forces of the soul against the invader. Observe—he 
does not himself repel the enemy, but lifts up a 
standard and rallies all the powers of the soul against 
him. Of course these powers must follow his lead ; 
but they will do it; they will do it always if he is 
abiding in the soul. Where he abides as master and 
keeper, there will be no dallying with sin. 

A brief sketch of experience may help us to un¬ 
derstand this matter. 

A WEAK OKE KEPT. 

One Lord’s-day afternoon, in the spring of 1835, 
a lad was sitting in a corner of the gallery, in the 
old Congregational meeting-house of a little New 
England town, listening to a sermon on the parable 


WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


315 


of the Prodigal Son. In the course of that sermon 
the lad was led to see that he could come to Jesus, 
and hope to be accepted. He went home solemnly 
happy, and for weeks thereafter loved to pray, loved 
to read the Bible, and at times felt his heart bound 
with exulting joy, and exceeding love to Jesus. 

After a while, when the freshness of his new 
feelings had passed away, and the revival influences 
that were around him ceased, the Bible and prayer 
began to lose their interest, and soon old pleasures 
regained their charm, and old besetting sins came 
back in power. He had backslidden—and yet, not 
so far as to lose hope, or give up resolving and pray¬ 
ing against sin. 

From this time on for many years there came, 
more or less often, revival seasons, times of more 
than usual religious interest and enjoyment. These 
were sometimes in connection with revivals in the 
church, sometimes not. They were pleasant, happy 
times, but they would not last. Often while they 
did last they were marred by an uneasy restless fear 
lest something should happen or be done, that 
should grieve the Spirit, and throw him back into 
the old deadness. Of course he wished such seasons 
to last—he was happier than at other times, and had 
a vague, half-recognized idea that he was also bet¬ 
ter, holier ; and he used to try to be very watchful 
against anything calculated to disturb his frame of 
mind, and to pray more than ordinarily, because 
prayer, he was taught, was a means of safety. And 


316 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


yet, in spite of all, they would not last. Tempta¬ 
tion would come up unexpectedly, or else the power 
of resisting it would seem to be gone ; he would for¬ 
get to watch or, quite as often, would grow tired of 
watching, and feel burdened by it; prayer would 
be neglected, or else would become so formal and 
lifeless as to seem almost more a sin than neglect; 
and so he would drop back into the old track, and 
seek his pleasure chiefly in the things of the world. 
Much of the time during these years he lived some¬ 
what as the Samaritan people did, of whom it is said, 
“ They feared the Lord and served their own gods.” 

After many years, there came a change ; how it 
came ; why it came, has always been a wonder to 
him ; but it did come. It came all unexpectedly. 
He had become discouraged and almost hopeless of 
ever living a different life, when lo ! God was re¬ 
vealed in his soul, revealed as never before, and his 
whole being was filled with a delicious peace and 
rest. The old, uneasy fear was gone, the struggle 
to keep a devotional frame of mind was gone, the 
weariness in watching was gone ; temptations came, 
but the soul seemed as sensitive to their approach, 
as the eye is to touch. It was to him not only a 
most blessed experience, but a new one. Nothing 
in his life before had been like it. Would it last ? 
Many times the suggestion was strongly forced upon 
his mind, “ It will not last; when the revival goes 
by you will be back where you were before.” The 
thought was inexpressibly painful. 


WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


317 


One day, after some weeks had passed by, and 
the special excitement of the revival had subsided, 
he had been out making calls, and had talked until 
thoroughly weary ; he was on his way home, when 
all at once it occurred to him, that his sense of union 
with God, and of rest in him was gone, and that he 
had in some way grieved the Spirit. Naturally, 
hut foolishly, he looked at once into his heart to 
examine, and see how it was. He could see nothing 
there to prove it was not so. The thought was 
agony. He hastened at once to his closet and fell 
down before God. He could hardly utter a sen¬ 
tence of verbal prayer, but in his soul were “groan- 
ings that could not be uttered.” By and by, the 
thought came into his mind, “ Perhaps God has 
withdrawn himself for a time to teach you some 
lesson, to discipline you, to fit you to do his will 
more perfectly. Are you willing that it should be 
so, if it be his will ? Yes, if he will only hold me 
up, keep me, so that I shall not sin against him, let 
him do what seemeth him good.” Soon, it occurred 
to him to open the Bible and look for some instruc¬ 
tive, helping word. He did so, and turning over a 
few leaves his eyes rested on the cxxi Psalm. “1 
will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence 
coineth my help. My help cometh from the Lord 
which made heaven and earth.” The words seemed 
to shed a blessed light upon his soul. He read on, 
verse after verse grew richer, fuller of blessed mean¬ 
ing. God was his keeper, his, now and forever! 


318 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


The promises seemed burned into his soul. He fell 
on his knees again and the hot, almost scalding 
tears burst forth like rain. His greatest fear was 
taken quite away. The divine keeper had come to 
stay. This was a joy beyond expression. The full 
blessedness of that hour, can never be told in this 
life. 

Years have passed since that day. They have 
been years of trial and temptation, of failure in many 
things, he has never been able to do anything to be 
proud of, and there has never been a day when he 
could say at its close, I have done my whole duty, I 
have committed no sin : and yet, day by day, and 
year after year, there has remained with him a sense 
of God’s presence, a sense of union with God, so 
that he has been enabled to “ endure as seeing him 
who is invisible.” His soul is kept in peace, and 
the power of the world to charm his heart, and 
either make or mar his happiness, is broken. The 
old ups and downs have almost wholly ceased. Re¬ 
vivals come and go, but they now seem to make 
little difference with his relations to God, or his joy 
in God. 

Instances like the above may be found in abun¬ 
dance. They are all around us. The promises of 
God are sure. And yet, the multitude of Christian 
people cannot seem to learn how to trust the divine 
keeper, or how to rest upon the promises. God 
grant that it may not be always so. 


WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 


319 


THE SEALER. 

“In whom also after that ye believed, ye were 
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the 
earnest of our inheritance.” 

“And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby 
ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” 

The uses of a seal are various. Among them are 
these ; a seal confirms a covenant or agreement; it 
gives authority to a state paper, a mandate of gov¬ 
ernment ; it is sometimes put upon property as the 
owner’s or maker’s mark. 

The Holy Spirit coming to abide in a believer’s 
heart , confirms God’s covenant with him. 

The hope of many, perhaps a large majority of 
those who are called Christ’s disciples, is not an as¬ 
sured hope. Is it not like a covenant or agreement 
that has been written out, but is not yet executed— 
sealed ? Such a covenant may well excite hope, but 
until it is sealed it does not give assurance. In im¬ 
portant matters, people are usually anxious to have 
such covenants completed. Why are so many willing 
to delay in this matter ? Is it not important ? 

When the Holy Spirit is received, the Faith of 
Assurance comes. Then also there comes the ear¬ 
nest of our inheritance, or a foretaste of the joys of 
heaven. God revealed in the soul by the Holy 
Ghost is heaven begun below. 

The Holy Spirit abiding in a believer authenti¬ 
cates him as God’s child , as God’s representative. 


320 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


When Jesus, at the time of his ascension, was 
saying his parting words to the disciples, he ex¬ 
pressly told them to tarry in Jerusalem until they 
should be endowed with power from on high. He 
would have them go out bearing the impress of the 
great seal of the King of kings. 

On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came, 
and they were sealed. Henceforth they were 
(i known and read of all men,” as the servants of the 
most high God. 

What was the authenticating sign, the impres¬ 
sion of the seal ? 

The Gift of Tongues is often spoken of as the 
sign of the Comforter’s presence. A little careful 
thought must show this to be a mistake. Paul in 
1 Cor. xii, xiii and xiv, fixes the true place and rel¬ 
ative importance of the gift of tongues. He shows 
that “ tongues,” miracles, gifts of healing, and all 
other special gifts which attended the church, were 
designed to comfort and establish believers and im¬ 
press unbelievers. But, they were mere gifts, dis¬ 
tributed among the disciples as the Giver pleased, 
and were exercised as the Giver prompted. No one 
of them appears to have been invariably present 
with those who had received the Holy Ghost. The 
apostle in enumerating the gifts, puts “ first, apos¬ 
tles ; secondarily, prophets ; thirdly teachers; after 
that miracles ; then gifts of healing, helps, govern¬ 
ments, diversities of tongues.” Evidently with a 
purpose, tongues are put last, as thought of lesser 


WORK OF THE HOLT SPIRIT. 


321 


importance. It was a showy gift, and the Corin¬ 
thians sought it especially ; he would dampen their 
ardor in that direction, and lead them to seek, in¬ 
stead, the more useful gift of speaking in their own 
language, words that would edify the church. 

It would be interesting to inquire, if we had any 
source of certain knowledge, how long miracles and 
the gift of tongues continued in the church. They 
were claimed for a long time ; indeed they are 
claimed even now, in the Komish church. The 
light which we have on the subject leads us to be¬ 
lieve that soon after apostolic days, they began to be 
counterfeited by designing, wicked persons, and 
were gradually withdrawn. That they were wholly 
withdrawn, that there have not been in all the ages, 
miraculous answers to prayer, it would be rash to 
assert. 

But, the seal; well, when the Comforter came 
he brought to those who received him, what was 
better, and of more importance than any special 
gifts; he fixed upon their hearts “the image and 
likeness of Christ.” That is the true seal. With¬ 
out that all gifts are vain ; with it, though all spe¬ 
cial gifts are wanting the authentication is perfect. 

The image of Christ—what is it ? Christ was a 
man, a struggling, tried, tempted, yet sinless man ; 
sinless, because God dwelled in his human form; 
the image of Christ must be then, a man in whom God 
the Holy Spirit abides ; a man kept “ by the power 
of God through faith unto salvation;” a human 
14 * 


322 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


soul, that energized by the Holy Spirit, struggles, 
according to its ability against all sin and wrong, 
and in the end wins the crown of victory. 

The image of Christ, this will be through all 
eternity, the peculiar, the distinctive glory of the 
redeemed. Angels, who have never sinned will not 
bear it. Like the “ new song,” it will belong exclu¬ 
sively to those “ who have come up through great 
tribulation and have washed their robes and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb.” 

Once more, the Holy Spirit, abiding in a soul, 
seals that soul, and all its possessions to God as his 
exclusive property. 

The mass of professing Christians are not con¬ 
scious of being wholly, unreservedly the Lord’s. 
They see the duty of entire consecration ; they often 
try to be consecrated ; but somehow, after all, they 
are not. This shows that the sealer has not been 
received by them. 

There is no more certain sign of the presence of 
the Holy Spirit in a man, than his ability to be 
consecrated. Many of us have given ourselves to 
God again and again ; have written out covenants 
and signed them on our knees, and yet could not 
stay given away. We have been like little children 
who give away their treasures, and in a few mo¬ 
ments claim them again, and toill have them back. 
Some of us have learned that God’s seal takes away 
the power and the wish to take any thing back from 
God. 


WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 323 

When the Holy Spirit comes to abide in us— 
when he breathes himself in upon our Spirit, 
sweetly, yet efficiently pervading every part of it, 
we cannot help but be the Lord’s. Yet we feel no 
sense of control. We are consciously as free as ever, 
but our will so blends with God’s will, and harmo¬ 
nizes with it, that we have lost the sense of being our 
own, or having anything that is our own. 

Thus much in regard to the offices and special 
work of the Holy Spirit. We have tried to get a 
little view—a glimpse, it is hardly more—of what he 
is, and what he does for those who love God. How 
let us not forget that what he does for us will de¬ 
pend upon our willingness to receive him, and upon 
our faith in the promises respecting him. Let us 
remember too, that his mission to us is not merely, 
nor chiefly to make us happy, but rather to make 
us holy. 

If we truly hunger and thirst after righteous¬ 
ness, it is his to satisfy that hunger and thirst, and 
we may ask for him, assured that the Father is 
more ready to give him than earthly parents are to 
give good things to their children. 

If we have not received him, the work of change, 
the regeneration of our souls has not been com¬ 
pleted. 

If he has come and abides in us, the generative 
period is past, and we are born of God. Then we 
have the adoption of sons and eternal life, and shall 


324 


BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT. 


never perish, for none can pluck us out of our 
Father’s hand. 

“ Now THE GOD OF PEACE THAT BROUGHT 
AGAIN FROM THE DEAD OUR LORD JESUS, THAT 
GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP, THROUGH THE 
BLOOD OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT, MAKE YOU 
PERFECT IN EVERY GOOD WORK TO DO HIS WILL, 
WORKING IN YOU THAT WHICH IS WELL-PLEASING 
IN HIS SIGHT, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST ; TO WHOM 
BE GLORY FOREVER AND EVER. AMEN.” 

Heb. iii. 20, 21. 


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